Author: McKinley Corbley / Source: Good News Network
In an unprecedented victory for cultural appreciation, people will now have free access to thousands of beloved published works thanks to a mass copyright expiration.
It has been 21 years since copyrighted works have been added to the public domain.
Prior to 1978, copyrighted works were eligible for 75 years of copyright protection. Anything published after that year was protected for the lifetime of the creator plus an additional 50 years.Then in 1998, several corporate media giants – including Disney – rallied for an extra 20 years of protection.
Since this most recent New Year’s Day marked the expiration of the additional two decades of copyright protection, thousands of books, films, poems, and musical pieces that were published in 1923 have finally entered the public domain.
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The last mass copyright expiration occurred before Google existed –…
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