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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Video monitor
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William Kucharski
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 244
From: Louisville, Colorado, United States of America
Registered: Oct 2012
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posted 05-29-2019 08:54 AM
quote: Marcel Birgelen
Also, in case of motion pictures, I'd say that in order to be able to claim copyright, you should be required to file at least one original copy with an "official recognized" film archive. After the copyright has expired, those film archives are required to provide a copy of the filed motion picture to anybody requesting a copy at a reasonable cost.
I'm not sure a copyright should ever expire. For example, there's zero reason something like Casablanca should ever be public domain no matter how old it is unless that's what Warner Brothers wants to happen.
On the other hand, if a film has been truly abandoned such that the copyright hasn't been renewed, then it's a different story, but I can think of few cases where that has occurred with a feature film that wasn't due to a bookkeeping accident.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 05-29-2019 02:50 PM
quote: William Kucharski
I'm not sure a copyright should ever expire. For example, there's zero reason something like Casablanca should ever be public domain no matter how old it is unless that's what Warner Brothers wants to happen.
There are good reasons why copyrights should always expire and not end up, locked up in some kind of corporate deadlock for infinity. We should choose for maintaining our cultural heritage, instead of corporate greed.
Those creative works become part of our history and our culture. As I pointed out earlier, the big corporations, those who own most of the IP we consume every day, are quickly moving away from physical media.
They want to control what we can see, when we can see it and how much it is going to cost us. If something isn't deemed valuable anymore, they can simply drop it from distribution and henceforth it will practically disappear from existence.
Many of those companies haven't been the best caretakers of their own IP. In the end, many classic movies only survived because of (often illicit) external collectors, who did take care of their precious copy...
Also, like I said earlier, there simply is no such thing as true creativity. We all draw from what we've learned, we've experienced, we've read, we've seen. We create new things from stuff that's out there. If everything is locked behind paywalls, this will be bad for creativity.
On the other hand, if nobody pays for creative works anymore, that's equally bad for creativity, henceforth did we invent copyright laws. Yet, when they were first implemented, they tried to balance the rights of the creator versus the rights of the common good. People that create worthwhile, new, original works would be sufficiently compensated, so they can continue to create new, creative works for us to enjoy.
An expiring copyright forces the creative industry to be actually creative, not just being an accounting frontend for rights acquired over decades. Why should a company be able to ask money forever, when they're essentially creating nothing new? They get a broad monopoly on everything new they create, but once it has expired, why shouldn't others be free to expand on those works? Most of the Disney classics we know, are reheated, creative re-interpretations of old stories, that have long been in the public domain.
quote: William Kucharski
On the other hand, if a film has been truly abandoned such that the copyright hasn't been renewed, then it's a different story, but I can think of few cases where that has occurred with a feature film that wasn't due to a bookkeeping accident.
In the current system, copyright doesn't need to be renewed, it's an automatic license, granted on every original work. There is also no need to register an original work, to be able to claim copyright on it. So, it either expires and enters the public domain or there are still copyrights attached to it, even if the owners don't seem to care about it anymore.
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