for my own edification

[kaigou]

and possibly yours.



Posted with no editorial comment, except to say that corrections may be pending, if anyone points 'em out. (The text I used, from Lessig, isn't real clear on what exact extensions or expansions were enacted between 1962 and 1976. It only remarks that a number of small changes were made to copyright limits, of no more than 1-2 years addition each time. Problem is, even a 2-yr addition every other year comes to 14yrs increase there.)

Comments

[whatistigerbalm]

I feel very stupid for not understanding that graph. (Which is not to say that it's fault of the graph - I'm not sure what the green and the pink line do over the years in the basic 'information' sense.)

[tiercel]

Me too, if it makes you feel any better.

[kaigou]

(see my reply to Tiger -- gimme a bit to recover from woods-hiking and I'll add it to the bottom of the post.)

[kaigou]

If you're used to Euro-based copyright laws, then the split doesn't make any sense (I expect) because the Euro-based system hasn't required registered copyright (and therefore has no re-registration period) for, uhm... I think since the Brits started copyright. I'm not really sure of all the details, only that non-US systems (Euros and those who hang out with them) don't have a registration, and therefore have no RE-registration.

Basically, for the first hundred-whatever years of the US (up to about 1909), you had to register your copyright on anything, and after X amount of time (the green line), it'd expire unless you renewed. If you renewed, you then got Y amount of time more (the pink line). In 1909 (or '19? a something-9), the US stopped requiring registration... so not surprising that eventually the renewal period also got swept away, in '76 or thereabouts, and now it's all one term.

Well, all one term PLUS life of the author/creator. (And even longer if it's a corporate owner, but I didn't show that development on this graph.)

Also, the other thing to note is that up to '76, I think it was (or mid-80s, but recent in the scheme of the graph) copyrights didn't just become all one term with no renewal -- they also became MANDATORY. In other words, you can't NOT copyright something you create. You can't create something and immediately put it in the public domain. That's one reason the Creative Commons and GPL workarounds were created, as a way to acknowledge copyright while at the same time granting the rights everyone'd get if the work were in the public domain.

Since, for all intents and purposes when it comes to practical application, the US no longer has a public domain.

[whatistigerbalm]

Ho'wow, thanks! (And apologies for the late reply!)

In other words, you can't NOT copyright something you create.

Does this mean that something you do is automatically under your copyright, or that you have to register it as such?

[leorising]

You did that? That's yours? That is a thing of beauty. I love how you reset the scale by "turning the corner."

Nice!

[kaigou]

I had trouble getting a sense of things from the text in Leesig's book, so I did the graph. Right-brained, y'know. When I'm not non-brained, that is.