Re: [dvd-discuss] Inspiration or infringement

["Timothy Phillips" <hrothgar(at)telepath.com>]

Renewed copyrights in published works expired up until about 1962.
They began expiring again in 1983.  Every year from 1983 until 1998
another year's worth of published works in their renewal term was
added to the public domain.

Even during the years 1962 through 1982, when no renewed copyrights
were allowed to expire, unrenewed copyrights continued to expire,
so the public domain wasn't utterly choked off.

Now that renewal is automatic, even that source of public domain
works has been slammed shut.  The public domain is utterly
frozen until January 1st 2003, when the right-of-first-publication
in some never-published works will expire.  The public domain
in published works is frozen, as well we know, until 2019.

Tim Phillips
<hrothgar@telepath.com>