WEBVTT - Why Can’t You Copyright a Chicken Sandwich? 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:03.080 Guess what will? 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:03.720 What's that mango? 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:06.720 So this week I started looking up Harry Potter knockoffs 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.640 and they are so terrible. I love them so much, 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.160 all right, So what'd you find? So there's this one 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:16.159 book in Spanish called Harry Porez and he's got his 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.840 friends Ron and Harmonia and they take on this evil 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.079 character named Condo Mort. I love how they change everyone's 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.560 name except Ron's, like there's no alternative name from Ron. 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.440 There's also one from Russia where he's kind of more 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:32.720 of a rock star and he rides a double bass 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.440 instead of a broom. But my favorite one is from China, 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:41.240 where Harry has to chase down Voldemort's protege Jandamort, who 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.519 apparently used to work for the circus under the name 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.960 Naughty Bubble. And there's also kind of into that to 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.040 check this out for some reason, there's also a character 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:51.880 named Big Spinach in it, but none of it makes 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:54.440 any sense. And can you imagine, like how bummed you'd 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.400 be if you ask for a Harry Potter book from 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:58.240 your parents and instead they brought you one of these 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.480 knock on ma I'm kind of into the but you know, 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.880 seeing all these crazy titles. Maybe wonder how does copyright work? 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.160 Like why can you remix a Sherlock home story but 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.840 not use Felix the Cat to advertise your work? Like 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:15.200 why are people so excited about twenty nineteen's public domain day. 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:17.560 We're gonna get into all of this. Let's dig in. 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.319 Hey, the podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.319 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.520 friend Mangush hot ticketter and on the other side of 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.680 the soundproof glass celebrating the demise of copyright by eating 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.560 Those are those Charleston jew They are dancing with Charleston. 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.400 That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. All right, so 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:57.320 just explain a little bit. I have to point out 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.360 that part of the reason Christin is doing this is 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:02.320 because he's lairing the Charleston song. It took me a 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.320 minute to figure this out. You could probably hear this 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.840 in the background now. The song itself was written to 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:10.520 accompany the dance back when it debuted back in nineteen 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:14.880 twenty three, and it kicked off this national craze. What's 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.400 notable about this is that twenty nineteen actually marks the 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.079 end of the Charleston Songs copyright protection. I don't know 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.080 if you knew this, if you've been following this, but 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.600 that is the case. So now anyone can make a 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.440 new recording of the song or play a nineteen twenty 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.760 three performance of it on a podcast, all without having 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.320 to pay a dime or worry about getting sued at 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:36.239 least I hope that. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.440 Which is obviously great news for any listeners who are 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.079 into the Charleston or at least as into it as 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.120 Kristan is. Apparently I guess so. 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.000 But you know, it turns out there's a lot of 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.600 reasons the party like it's nineteen twenty three this month, 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.480 even if you're not a Charleston fan, And that's because 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.839 a slew of works from this year have just entered 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.800 the public domain for the very first time. Now, believe 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.560 it or not, this is actually the first mass influx 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.760 of public domain material in the US in twenty years, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.400 I think. So we'll get in exactly why this is 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.160 and how it involves Mickey Mouse a little bit later, 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.960 but the main takeaway is that thousands of classic books 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.120 and movies and songs and other works of art they 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.200 are now free to use, remix, sell, all without any 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.160 legal restriction around them, which. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.280 Is why we're marking the occasion with an episode all 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.160 about the ins and outs of the copyright. So we'll 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.119 talk a little bit about the history of copyright law, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.959 including why the terms have been extended in the US 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.840 and also what makes this year so different from others. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:34.760 Plus we'll take a closer look at the public domain 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.480 class of twenty nineteen to see exactly what sort of 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.400 hidden treasures just fell into our laps. But you know, will, 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.400 where do you want to start off here? All? 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:42.600 Right? 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.520 Well, I thought we should give our listeners a little 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.200 bit of context to all of this. So for starters, 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:50.840 January first is recognized all around the world is Public 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.480 Domain Day, and I actually didn't know that until we 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.800 were doing our research for this episode. But the way 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:57.760 that it works is that at the stroke of midnight 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.000 on New Year's Eve, older works are automatically enter the 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.280 public domain as they age out of their copyright terms. 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.520 But this is where things get a little bit tricky. 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.800 So different countries have their own rules for how long 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:13.480 a work can remain under copyright, so most countries will 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.040 provide copyright protection for the life of their author. Plus 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.240 a certain set number of years beyond that, like the 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.520 author's life plus fifty or seventy or whatever it may be. 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.599 But in the US things have traditionally worked a little 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.560 bit differently. So here copyrights made prior to nineteen seventy 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:33.120 eight have nothing to do with the life span of 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.919 the work's author. Instead, these copyright materials are protected for 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:40.800 a flat ninety five years after their first publication. It 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:42.599 always makes you wonder, like where they come up with 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:45.760 the number why ninety five? So, just as an example, 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.599 the Grapes of Wrath won't enter the US public domain 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:52.400 until January of two thousand and thirty five, because that 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.120 will be ninety five years after it was first published. Now, 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.640 on the other hand, readers in places like Canada and 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.960 New Zealand, can Rea and rework the text for free 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.799 starting this year, and that's because twenty nineteen is fifty 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:08.960 years after the death of the book's author, John Steinbeck. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.039 Isn't that weird? Like something about that like feels so 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.080 off to me. Yeah, I mean, it's this like quintessential 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.719 American novel and people in other countries actually get to 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:18.920 do whatever they want with it. First, I know, three 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:21.960 decades before Americans get to. It's super weird, but it 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.200 actually reminds you. I was reading about the rights to 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:26.400 the song this Land is Your Land, which, of course 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:28.040 you know what you got through. You wrote the lyrics too, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.920 and that's a piece of music that just feels inseparable 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:33.560 from the American identity, and it's kind of come this 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.200 great American almost like an anthem, ever since it was 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.920 published back in nineteen forty five. But again for Canada 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.119 and other countries with copyright terms of life plus fifty years, 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.080 that song entered in the public domain last year, whereas 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.320 in the US you'll actually have to wait till twenty 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:50.680 forty one to be able to use it. Twenty forty one, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:52.880 and that's when you're planning to put out a dubstep rema. 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.640 That's right, absolutely, But before we move on, I do 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.080 want to mention that this Land is Your Land is 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.120 kind of a funny case to look at it. So 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.680 the lyrics clained that the land belongs to you and me, 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.200 and that was actually Guthrie's intention for the song too. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.240 In nineteen forty five, he published the song with a 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.880 copyright notice that read quote, this song is copyrighted in 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:16.520 the US for a period of twenty eight years, and 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.159 anybody caught singing it without our permission will be mighty 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.640 good friends of ourn because we don't give a durn 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.000 publish it, write it, sing it, swing to it, yodel it. 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:28.160 We wrote it. That's all we wanted to do. 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:29.040 That's hilarious. 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:31.120 And I'm curious that, like, why didn't the song enter 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:33.320 the public domain in the seventies, you know, like what 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:34.080 he wanted it to. 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.839 Well, apparently the publisher renewed the copyright at some point 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.960 without Guthrie's input, so the song's copyright status wound up 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.559 being extended and now it's covered by the current ninety 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.000 five year term we have in the US. 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:47.120 Okay, all right, well in that case, I mean now 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.520 seems like a good time to break down the key 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.880 changes to the copyright law that have taken place here 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.400 in the US over you know, over several decades. But 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.000 don't worry about your eyes glazing over because I'm going 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.560 to try to keep this short and sweet good. So 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.240 they basically, American copyright law began with the Constitution, which 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.479 grants Congress the power to bestow exclusive rights to the 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.440 author of a work for quote limited times. So at first, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.600 that limited time meant fourteen years, with the option to 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.480 renew for another fourteen years, making the max possible twenty 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.200 eight years. Now, those rules were mended over time that went. 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.760 By nineteen oh nine, both copyright terms had doubled to 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.520 twenty eight years or fifty six total. 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:26.600 I guess got it. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.000 So that's where what you would have gotten that twenty 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.960 eight year term he claimed, you know, for the copyright 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.000 he was talking about. But you know, I'm sure he 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.440 never intended to renew the song for that second twenty 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:37.560 eight year period. 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:38.040 That's right. 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.680 So then you fast forward to nineteen seventy six and 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.880 the extension started getting kind of out of hand. So 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:45.960 the fifty six year period was bumped up to a 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.640 full seventy five years, meaning that any work produced through 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:54.800 nineteen twenty two would be copyright protected until nineteen ninety eight. Then, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.160 in nineteen ninety eight, just as the nineteen twenty three 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.320 copyrights were about to expire for the next year, a 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.680 new piece of legislation was passed. It makes you wonder 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.120 why people were so interested in changing the legislation, But yeah, 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:08.800 the new law attacked on another twenty years for the 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.240 copyright of any work made between nineteen twenty three and 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:14.000 nineteen seventy seven. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.440 And that's actually why there's this big twenty year gap 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.400 that we're just coming out of right now. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:19.600 That is exactly right. 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.600 So those extra two decades added in, you know, nineteen 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.800 ninety eight was when this happened. It basically put a 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.760 freeze on the public domain editions. So the works that 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.600 were scheduled dinner the public domain were suddenly off the 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:34.120 table for another twenty years. And so that's what made 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.040 New Years of twenty nineteen such a big deal. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.080 I mean, the drought is finally. 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.080 And I'm guessing that's for the foreseeable future too, right, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.360 Like a whole year's worth of work should enter the 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.640 public domain every year now, ongoing. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.200 Right, right, And it's really just the beginning of like 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.680 four decades worth of annual time capsules, you know, so 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.760 you know, long as corporations don't succeed in extending the 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.560 copyright terms even further. Although if we're being it's not 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.200 like the last twenty years haven't brought any new additions 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.320 to the public domain from this era, because plenty of 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.360 works from the nineteen twenties through the nineteen seventies have 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.480 already entered the public domain because their copyrights were never 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.440 renewed for one reason or another. And in fact, one 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.760 study from twenty eleven suggested that as many as ninety 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.360 percent of works published in the nineteen twenties were never 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.280 renewed at all, and the same is true for roughly 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:27.920 sixty percent of the works from the nineteen forties, So 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:28.920 there were a ton. 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:29.840 Of them that were out there. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.440 So basically that extension in nineteen ninety eight only applied 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:36.400 to the works whose copyrights were still active at that time, 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:39.760 and so anything that hadn't been previously renewed was already 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:40.600 fair game. 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:41.440 For public use. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.120 Of course, the tricky part has been determining whether an 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.200 old copyright has lapsed or not. 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.240 Yeah, I'm guessing that's a pretty murky business trying to 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:50.160 figure all that out. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:51.760 It is, And you know, so in the past it's 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.960 been safer to err on the side of caution and 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.360 just kind of steer clear of any work whose status 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:56.840 was in. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.200 Question, of course, to avoid getting sued. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.160 His concerns are out the window at least as far 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.160 as works from nineteen twenty three go, And now that 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.320 they've passed the ninety five year mark. We know for 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.120 certain that they're in the public domain. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:11.679 So I know there are probably some folks listening who 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.880 are thinking, okay, but who cares about all this old 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.320 timey stuff anyway. You know, it's not like I'm going 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.640 to start listening to chart toppers from the nineteen twenties 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.760 or whatever. But you know, that's totally fair. But here's 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:24.600 the thing that Gabe was pointing out to me. Most 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.160 of us honestly don't know what we've been missing out on. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.160 Like the public domain provides this great chance for overlooked 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:32.600 works to find a second lease on life. And if 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.920 you look at what happened to It's a Wonderful Life. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.600 You know, that movie actually flopped when it was first released, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.920 but once it entered the public domain, it slowly became 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.720 a holiday classic. And that success only happened because TV 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.040 networks were actually able to play the movie for free 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.400 year after year. So in this weird way, it's like 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.400 cultural worth is actually greater today than it would have 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.280 been had it remained under a copyright. You know, there 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:57.680 is this author, Glenn Fleischman, and he had this great 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.880 quote in this article for the Atlantic, and he said, quote, 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.560 only so much that's created has room to persist in memory, culture, 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.480 and scholarship. Some works may have been forgotten because they 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:10.760 were simply terrible or perishable, but it's also the case 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.960 that a lack of access to these works and digital 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.680 forms limits whether they get considered at all. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.160 I mean, it's a good point, and it actually reminds 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.160 me of something I came across this week from the 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.360 American novelist Willa Cather, and she once called nineteen twenty 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.559 two the year the world broke in two, and that 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.200 was because of all the big literary and cultural shakeups 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.400 that took place that year. It was the start of 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.720 the Harlem Renaissance, plus the publication of works like Ulysses 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.520 by James Joyce and The Wasteland by T. S. 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:39.080 Eliott. 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.400 So to her, nineteen twenty two was this turning point, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.800 like there was a world before that year and then 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.920 there was a world after it. And strangely enough, that's 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.240 also how things broke down in terms of US copyright law. 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.880 So everything up through nineteen twenty two is now part 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.800 of the public domain, but it's a different story for 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.480 works from nineteen twenty three and beyond. So hundreds of 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.280 thousands of songs and movies and books and newspapers, magazines, 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.959 like so many different things of that era had been 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.880 held back for decades, longer than they should have been, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.000 And so as a result, you figure there have to 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.199 be a lot of blind spots in our understanding of 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:16.640 that period in American history. 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.320 Yeah, like even things we know about, like the Harlem Renaissance, 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.720 so the Great Depression of World War two, Like we 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.360 should get like a fuller picture once we get access 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:25.160 to these materials. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:25.440 Then. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.600 Also, it'll be so fun to see them show up 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.200 in memes and music and things. 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:29.520 Yeah. 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:31.000 All right, Well, I'm excited to hear what you think 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.240 should make the cut this year. But before we share 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:49.000 our favorites, let's take a quick break. You're listening to 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.360 Part Time Genius, so we're talking about the giant wave 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.319 of classic art that just entered the public domain this month. 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.760 All right, Megan, So I'm curious which works are you 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.560 most excited to have free of their copyrights this year. 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:02.120 I'm just gonna go ahead and get the literature picks 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.120 out of the way first, because that's where you find 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.400 a lot of the heavy hitters, and honestly, it's too 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.920 many to go through So for fiction, we've got stories 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.359 from authors like Virginia Woolf, Aldus Huxley, Jane Austen Hemingway. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.400 And then in terms of poetry, there's work from E. Cummings, 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:22.120 William Carlos, Williams, Wallace Stevens, Pablo Neruda, Robert Frost, including 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:24.440 one of his most famous poems, Stopping by Woods on 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.199 a snowy evening Like, which is just cool that these 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.320 texts are out there and easier to explore and play 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:31.680 with them before. But but what about you, Like, are 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:33.360 there any books you're happy to see in the public 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:34.120 domain that. 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.160 Was amazing to hear, like all those heavy hitters. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:36.640 Yeah? 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.920 Here, But I always like it when famous literary characters 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:41.760 make their way into the public domain because you get 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.400 a whole bunch of new takes on them, Like that's 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:46.840 what happened with Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes. 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.480 You know, I didn't think of that. So what new 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.320 characters are we getting to play with now? 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.000 All right? Well, twenty nineteen is giving us access to 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.679 new Tarzan stories from Edgar Rice Burrows, but also two 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:02.319 of Agatha Christie's mystery novels, Starr Belgian detective Hercule Puro, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.440 the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and the Murder on the Links. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.240 Wait, wasn't Tarzan already in the public domain? 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.920 Though, Yeah, that's right, there's a story from nineteen ten 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.880 that's been in the public domain. And actually there's one 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.720 earlier Poro novel that's already there too. 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:20.600 So how do the laws work with characters like that? 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.000 I mean, can people just write their own new Tarzan 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.360 stories or can they only publish and rework the existing books? 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.200 Like is the copyright on the character or just the 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:30.200 stories he appears in. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.200 Well, you can't actually copyright a name or a phrase 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.160 or anything like that. But what you can do is 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.600 get your character trademarked while it's still under copyright. So, 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.400 if you take the case of Tarzan, that's what the 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.120 author's airs did. So even though the original Tarzan stories 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.280 can be freely published and adapted for movies or comics 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.520 or whatever else, you still can't publish your own original 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.720 Tarzan books without receiving permission, And of course to do 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.720 that you'd have to pay a fee to the Burroughs estate, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.600 And so things are a little more icy when it 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:01.240 comes to Pooro. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.280 And why is that? Well, not all. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.640 Copyrighted characters qualify for trademark protection, and some people you 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:12.120 know maintain that Pooro does not qualify so for reasons 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.720 that they're a little too complicated to get into here. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.760 But until someone is willing to gamble, you know, a 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:22.000 potential lawsuit to publish their own unauthorized story, the character's 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.360 legal status is kind of in limen So the new 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.520 public domain additions for those characters are mostly exciting because 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.240 it means there are new Tarzan stories or Pooro mysteries 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.720 that can be safely adapted or altered by anyone, even 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:38.680 if the characters themselves are still otherwise off limits. 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:40.840 So I'm a little worried about what that might mean 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:43.000 for our next pick here, because even though twenty nineteen 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:44.920 Freese up the rights to a bunch of classic silent 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.600 films from people like a Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.160 and Hardy, which is awesome, by the way, because like, 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:53.360 it'd be so amazing to start seeing these movies on 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.400 late night TV. But you know, the one I was 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.720 most personally excited about was the Felix the Cat cartoons, 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.440 which just hit the public domain, and I was kind 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.600 of hoping we could add it to the PTG logo 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.120 or just make him like the official show mascot or something, 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.880 but I'm guessing that's not the case if he's still 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:10.640 trademark right. 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.520 You know, Felix was one that stood out to me too, 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.640 so I actually did a little bit of digging on this, 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.120 and it turns out that even though the character is 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:22.320 still technically trademarked by DreamWorks, they only control his use 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.600 in certain instances. And you know, of course that's really 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.560 around advertising, So how does that work exactly? So you 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.560 could actually publish your own Felix the Cat comic strips 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.440 and even adapt those new stories into animated shorts, but weirdly, 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.440 you just can't include Felix himself and any of the 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.960 advertising for that. Apparently, DreamWorks also owns the Felix trademark 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.000 for quote life saving instruments, so I guess a line 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.840 of Felix branded fire extinguishers is totally off. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:53.960 I feel like that's exactly where I was going with this, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.720 like Felix EpiPens and spook detectors. But you know, if 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.680 cartoons aren't your thing, We've also got plenty of new 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.200 public domain songs to keep us busy, and there's some 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.919 real chestnuts here, tunes like dizzy Fingers Horsey keep your 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:09.159 tail up, I know that's a favorite in the Pierson 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:14.040 household aught and that timeless romantic vallid o g oh gosh, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:15.320 oh golly, I'm in love. 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:17.879 I think these are probably in that collection of that 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.920 old amberolla, like, oh yeah, the house that's all those 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.159 wax cylinders. That's pretty cool to listen to, And you 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:27.760 know it truly was a different time. I was actually 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:29.920 listening to a few songs from our list this week, 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:31.920 and I was struck by how many of them were 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:32.520 just kind. 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.000 Of wide eyed, upbeat nonsense. 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:37.240 Like there was this one that was basically about how 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.600 strange it is that the earth rotates, and that it 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:41.560 can be daytime in one part of the world and 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.720 nighttime in another. It was riveting song, but and I 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.240 guess for fun, they just threw in a bunch of 0:17:46.320 --> 0:17:49.320 gibbers that doesn't rhyme or fit the meter or anything. 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.360 So there's this one line that goes, when it's nighttime 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:55.320 in Italy, it's Wednesday over here, when it's fish day 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.560 in Germany, you can't get shaved in Massachusetts, and the 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.080 whole thing. It's just so bizarre, and I'm really hoping 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:04.080 this catches on again. 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.479 That is amazing and in the same vein of that 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.840 old timy nonsense songs. I'm pretty pumped that the copyright 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.720 finally expired on Yes We Have No Bananas Today, which 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.600 is actually one of the songs. I know. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:18.879 I would definitely leave it to you to zero in 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.280 on the Banana song and a bunch of these, But. 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.159 Weirdly, it turns out there's actually a sequel song called 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.159 the It's called I've Got the Yes we Have No 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.400 Banana Blues, and since it was released the same year 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.600 as the original, it's now in the public domain as well. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.600 So why did they do a follow up song? Was 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:37.560 it just that popular? 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.359 It's basically a response to how popular the first song 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:42.760 was and how sick everyone was of hearing it all 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:45.320