Re: benefits of the public domain and limited copyright terms?

On 5/6/2000, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 5 May 2000, Jon Noring <noring[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > On another mailing list a very pointed question was asked, the gist
> > of the question being "why is the Public Domain necessary -- what's
> > wrong with perpetual copyright terms?"
>
> Because it would likely have stopped Shakespeare, Walt Disney,
> Andrew Lloyd Weber, and countless other artists from creating
> their most popular works:
>
> Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ [1601] would've infringed Saxo Grammaticus'
> _History of Prince Amleth_ [1185] ; his _Romeo and Juliet_ [1591]
> was taken from Arthur Brooke's poem _Romeus and Juliet_ [1562] ;
> most of his historical plays would have infringed R. Holingshead's
> _Chronicles of England_ [1573] ; etc.
>
> Andre Lloyd Webber's _Phantom of the Opera_ [1986] would have
> infringed Gaston Leroux's novel [1910] of the same name.
>
> Most of Walt Disney's animated films were based on public-domain
> works published in the 1800's. _Show White_, _Cinderella_,
> _Pinnochio_, _Jungle Book_ (released exactly one year after
> Kipling's copyrights expired), _Alice in Wonderland_, etc. etc.

We're looking for examples like these to use in the Eldred v. Reno challenge to the Sonny Bono term extension, now on appeal. As part of the Berkman Center's Openlaw project, we have materials from the case,including a draft of our brief, online at <http://openlaw.org/eldredvreno/> for public commentary and suggestions. We're arguing that the extension is an insufficiently justified burden on speech, and that the retrospective extension cannot possibly be justified as an incentive to creators.

Thanks for any input.
--Wendy

---
Wendy Seltzer
wendy[_at_]seltzer.com
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html