https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/17/dastar-dly-deeds/#dastar-dly-deeds
'In 1976, Congress set fire to the country's libraries; in 1998, they did it
again. Today, in 2024, the flames have died down, and out of the ashes a new
public domain is growing. Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate!
For most of US history, copyright was something you had to ask for. To
copyright a work, you'd send a copy to the Library of Congress and they'd issue
you a copyright. Not only did that let you display a copyright mark on your
work – so people would know they weren't allowed to copy it without your
permission – but if anyone wanted to figure out who to ask in order to get
permission to copy or adapt a work, they could just go look up the paperwork at
the LoC.
In 1976, Congress amended the Copyright Act to eliminate the "formality" of
copyright registration. Now, all creative works of human authorship were
copyrighted "at the moment of fixation" – the instant you drew, typed, wrote,
filmed, or recorded them. From a toddler's nursery-school finger-painting to a
graffiti mural on a subway car, every creative act suddenly became an article
of property.
But whose property? That was on you to figure out, before you could copy,
publish, perform, or preserve the work, because without registration,
permissions had to start with a scavenger hunt for the person who could grant
it. Congress simultaneously enacted a massive expansion of property rights,
while abolishing the title registry that spelled out who owned what. As though
this wasn't enough, Congress reached back in time and plopped an extra 20
years' onto the copyrights of existing works, even ones whose authors were
unknown and unlocatable.
For the next 20 years, creative workers, archivists, educators and fans
struggled in the face of this regime of unknowable property rights. After
decades of well-documented problems, Congress acted again: they made it worse.'
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
