WEBVTT - What Does It Mean When Art Is Public Domain? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.600 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff, 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:13.360 Lauren Vogelbaum Here. Lots of people celebrate on January first 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.000 in the standard Gregorian calendar. It's the first day of 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.680 the new year, a chance for new beginnings, a new 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.520 chapter in our story, if you will. But that can 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:28.480 become quite literal for people who celebrate public Domain Day. 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.320 Every year. On January first, a trove of creative works 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.680 copyrighted about a century ago in America enter the public domain. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:44.800 That basically means that these works could now be shared, performed, reused, repurposed, 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.199 or sampled without having to obtain permission from the copyright 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:53.199 holder or pay anything for using the work. Although copyright 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.440 law helps protect artists' intellectual property and that they are 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:58.279 the only ones who can make money off of it, 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.040 a public domain and that after enough time has passed, 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.680 other artists are able to draw from the collective imagination 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.360 of our society and build on it. Twenty twenty four 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.880 is actually a banner year for public domain because it's 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:17.600 the year that Disney's Steamboat Willie cartoon featuring the first 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.039 appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, became free for use. 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.600 The cartoon debuted in nineteen twenty eight. That's ninety five 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.800 years ago. It was originally supposed to enter the public 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.679 domain in nineteen eighty four after a fifty six year 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.320 copyright term, but Disney and a bunch of other large 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.240 creative companies lobbied Congress to extend that term for twenty years, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:45.160 and Congress did twice. But its term is finally up. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.680 This doesn't mean that you can now create a new 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:51.840 work with Mickey and try to pass it off as 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:55.440 being from Disney, and it doesn't mean that you can 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.480 use versions of these characters from later works that are 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:03.400 still under copyright. For example, Mickey from the Sorcerer's Apprentice 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:07.000 segment in Fantasia is still off limits until that film's 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:11.120 turns up in another decade or so, but the steamboat 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:16.240 designs of these buddies are now up for grabs. In 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.880 addition to Steamboat Willie, lots of other films, books, plays, 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.280 and musical compositions from nineteen twenty eight are now fair game, 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.240 including Buster Keaton's film The Cameraman, D H. Lawrence's novel 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.880 Lady Chatterley's Lover, Robert Frost's poetry collection West running Brook, 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:36.160 A Milns House at Pooh Corner, which introduces the character Tigger, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.520 the original German version of Bertold Brex and Kurt Weile's 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.120 play The Threepenny Opera, which is where the song Mac 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.639 the Knife comes from, and songs like when You're Smiling 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:51.160 and I Want to Be Loved by You. When I 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.919 say songs here, I mean just the written composition. There's 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:59.440 a different copyright law for sound recordings. As of now, 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.119 those enter the public domain a full one hundred years 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:05.800 after their publication, so in twenty twenty four we're getting 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.840 recordings from nineteen twenty three. This is due to the 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.679 fact that copyright law for audio recordings used to be 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.760 handled on a state and local basis, leading to a 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.320 lot of messy confusion, which the national government tried to 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:22.560 correct with the Copyright Act of nineteen seventy six and 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.519 the Music Modernization Act of twenty eighteen, which is when 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.760 we landed on the current one hundred year term. It's 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.680 going to change in twenty forty seven, but that's a 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:38.040 different episode. To grasp what public domain means, it helps 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:43.120 to understand what copyrights are and why they exist in 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.600 the US. The public policy behind copyright and patent protection 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.680 actually originates in the Article one, Section eight, Clause eight 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:55.280 of the Constitution, commonly known as the Intellectual Property Clause, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:58.760 which grants Congress the power a quote to promote the 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.440 progress of science and useful arts by securing, for limited 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.720 times to authors and inventors the exclusive right of their 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:11.320 respective writings and discoveries. The purpose of copyright law is 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.400 to encourage and incentivize writers and inventors to keep creating 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.799 new works by giving them exclusive rights to their works. 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.640 This means giving them exclusive rights for a limited time 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.800 and distinguishing between intellectual property and other types of property 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:31.320 such as houses or other things that consumers can own. 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.760 For the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Works. 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.880 Spoke with Esteon to a professor of law at West 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.320 Virginia University School of Law who is taught courses in copyright, 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:46.960 trademark and patent law. He explained about intellectual property quote 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:51.760 with music, it's particularly easy to understand because of digital transfer. 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:54.880 If I'm listening to a Taylor Swift song, does that 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:57.920 stop you from listening to a Taylor Swift song? No? 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.800 But if I'm enjoying my house, you can't enjoy this 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:04.960 same house because there's only one house. We have to 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.320 create a system to protect intellectual property that's different from 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:15.000 real property and moveable personal property. Two continued. For Taylor 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.279 Swift to create a song, it's very expensive, right, but 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.279 she has to put in the effort and time to 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.960 make the recording. But then I can make an MP 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.080 three of it and send it off to the world. Similarly, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:29.320 it costs drug companies hundreds of millions of dollars in 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:31.440 R and D costs, as well as going through the 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.960 FDA approval process to bring a drug to market. If 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.039 a second drug company could simply copy the drug, no 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.800 firm would ever invest in creating a drug in the 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.360 first place. Patents play a role to allow companies to 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.000 recuperate their initial investments while making a profit by limiting competition. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:56.280 So without copyright protection to ensure that Taylor Swift gets 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.600 paid for her songs, it would be harder for her 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.599 to earn a living as a performer. Who knows she 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.919 might even still be working at our father's Christmas tree farm. Similarly, 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.560 without patent protection for drugs, which lasts for twenty years 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.760 after a drugs invention in the US, a life saving 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:18.200 and life changing medications might not be developed here. Two said, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.599 as a society, we say that we want more Taylor 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.320 Swift songs. So what we're going to do is give 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.039 her that protection so that she could make putting out 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:32.960 songs her life's work. One important thing about copyrights is 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.080 that they not only protect the original work, but restrict 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.280 other's ability to create derivative works that are based upon it, 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:43.040 even if they're in other media. So if you've written 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.360 a book, I couldn't make a movie based on it 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:50.479 unless you gave me permission. Also, while a copyright for 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.400 a particular book or film mixpire, the creator may still 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.040 hold rights to the characters, as with Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:03.760 and other exclusions of a too. Two said, there's something 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.920 called the sena fair doctrine, which means that there are 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.640 stock characters present in every story, like the comic relief 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.400 character who's a bubbling buffoon. Right, that's fair game to 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.080 use if you've got to copyright on Harry Potter. Does 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.000 that mean that all boy wizards are copyrighted or all 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:24.480 stories with a wizard in it? No, But the closer 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:26.920 you get to a boy wizard who fights an evil 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.120 wizard that has seven lives. That looks a little bit closer, 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.480 and if that boy wizard goes to Hogwarts, okay, that 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:40.680 clearly is the expression that's protected. Originally, copyrights were relatively 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:45.000 short in duration. The Copyright Act of seventeen ninety, for example, 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.840 gave copyright owners control over their works for fourteen years, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:53.360 with an opportunity to renew for another fourteen But over time, 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.760 the number of years that the work can be protected 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.960 has increased, giving creators more time to profit from having 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:05.280 a monopoly over their work. In nineteen ninety eight, Congress 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.600 passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, named after 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.920 the late singer and songwriter turned politician. This allowed for 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.320 an author's copyright to last for the person's lifetime plus 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.640 seventy years, while copyrights held by corporations last one hundred 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.560 and twenty years after creation or ninety five years after publication, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.640 whichever comes sooner. Some argue that this length of time 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.240 is stifling to the creativity of new artists, and point 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.480 to the tendency of companies like Disney to profit vastly 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.760 off of works already in the public domain, like Hans 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.040 Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, published in eighteen thirty seven, 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.199 or The Snow Queen, which was the inspiration for Frozen, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:53.480 published in eighteen forty four. Because just as copyrights encourage 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.320 people to be creative, so does the public domain. An 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:00.640 imaginative person can write a sequel or prequel to a 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.400 classic novel using the same characters as the original, or 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.320 they can do mashups of the classics, such as inserting 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.440 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein's Monster into a Jane Austen story, or 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.520 put a version of Frankenstein's Monster into an original work, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:19.360 as happened in the recent film Poor Things. Though to note, 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.560 if someone merely alters or adds to the original work, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.760 they can only seek copyright protection for the new material, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:31.520 not the entire piece. Once a copyright expires, that creative 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.760 work is available for free to anyone who wants to perform, publish, 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.880 or broadcast it. That's a big benefit to society because 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.359 community theaters can show movies for free, and youth orchestras 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:49.559 can perform music without paying licensing fees. Similarly, publishers can 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.040 put out new editions of classic novels with new illustrations 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.079 or annotations, and online archives can offer public domain books 0:09:57.080 --> 0:10:02.679 in their entirety for free to the public. However, all 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.880 of this is assuming that a copy of the working 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.040 question has survived the long waiting period for it to 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.559 come into the public domain. Last year, two classic films, 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.240 the vampire movie London After Midnight, which starred Lon Cheney, 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.400 and The Way of All Flesh, for which Emil Jennings 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.440 got the best actor Oscar both came up for free use, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.400 but as far as we know, no one will get 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.120 a chance to use them or screen them because they've 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.400 been lost. Only still photos shot during filming remain from 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.520 London After Midnight, and just a few fragments of film 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.600 remain from the Way of All Flesh. This ties into 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.520 one of the arguments for shortening that copyright term. The 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.560 physical media that films and music used to be recorded 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.720 on are fragile, and sometimes copyright law prevents them from 0:10:50.760 --> 0:11:00.400 being restored and thus archive before they literally disintegrate. Today's 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:02.640 episode is based on the article what does it mean 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.120 when a book, movie your song enters the public Domain 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.640 on HowStuffWorks dot com written by Patrick J. Kiger. Brain 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.719 Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:14.959 Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.360 My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.240 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.