New works entering the public domain again this year.

[conuly]

Hurrah!

Now, if only we could retroactively reduce the copyright term. 75 years is still ridiculous.

Comments

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Copyright was originated to deal with the printing version of movie piracy. Literally authors needed a way to prosecute bootleg copies of their work competing with a run still being set. Frequently on worse paper and typo ridden. Or those damn bot fed teeshirt plagiarists.

[hudebnik]

There was also a phenomenon of people writing their own material and publishing it under the name of a well-known writer so they could sell more copies, IIRC. Which in modern terminology would probably be a violation of trademark rather than copyright.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

False pretenses. Trademark (I'm not a legal scholar) and names really only applies to actors but that was so tied up in the studio system and again, it's that false pretenses. Purporting to be an actor better know is a form of fraud or sharp practice.

Appending a name not their own to a musical score has happened.

[conuly]

A tradition that goes back as far as the New Testament and probably further.