Comment Re:A correction: (Score 2) 207
I think that at some point society becomes inseparable from the creative works that influence it. A culture becomes so suffused with references and allusions to novels, music, movies, that they become almost essential knowledge. At that point (and this is what the expiration of copyright is supposed to enforce), the rights ought to go to the public. This concept where copyright could last for 90 years is a pretty new one. It was supposed to be much shorter.
Today's myths and legends and fairy tales and other cultural keystones were someone's creative "property," once, and it would be bizarre if one were, say, prevented from reinterpreting King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf, Shakespeare, the Bible, the Iliad, etc. etc. Some things from a century and less ago like Holmes, Cthulhu, Superman, Mickey Mouse, and so on could be argued to be getting pretty close to a level like that.
Today's myths and legends and fairy tales and other cultural keystones were someone's creative "property," once, and it would be bizarre if one were, say, prevented from reinterpreting King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf, Shakespeare, the Bible, the Iliad, etc. etc. Some things from a century and less ago like Holmes, Cthulhu, Superman, Mickey Mouse, and so on could be argued to be getting pretty close to a level like that.