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Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,141
Honestly I never saw the point. Nothing stopping you from making a star wars movie, hell many already been made.
 

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,894
Did anyone get mad or did anything bad happen when Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and others went PD?
 

DanSensei

Member
Nov 15, 2017
1,213
It's bad like used games are bad (remember those conversations on the old board?) Maybe corporations/millionaires/billionaires will lose money, but no one who ever needs to make money again will see any negative effects.
 

SilentPanda

Member
Nov 6, 2017
13,726
Earth
With that new Winnie the Pooh movie, I got thinking

Is something becoming public domain really such a good thing.

Disney rather infamously keeps changing copyright law so Mickey Mouse doesn't become public domain and characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man would long be in the public domain by now.

But is there a downside? Imagine if Lucas had made Star Wars public domain? EVERYONE would be making a Star Wars movie right now.

I'm curious as to what you all think.

Its happening alot woth china film, you have multiple movie on

sun wukong the monkey king from journey to the west
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Di Renjie

A famous detective during the Tang and Zhou dynasty
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Song Ci - THe first world's first forensic entomologist, during the Song dynasty
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Or a fictional character, the archetype of the daosit that specialize in chinese zomobie

All 3 are "different" character with differnt name and origin, but base on the popuular 80/90 HK movie archetype of the daoist.
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GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,639
It's objectively fantastic. The only downside I can think of is that music that becomes public domain inevitably gets overplayed in like, YouTube videos and trailers.
 

danm999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
17,132
Sydney
Did anyone get mad or did anything bad happen when Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and others went PD?

Bram Stoker I don't think ever copyrighted Dracula, so there wasn't anyone to get mad when it went public domain.

Sherlock Holmes was litigated a bunch of times by the Conan Doyle estate but they lost in court.
 

Eoin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,103
EVERYONE would be making a Star Wars movie right now.
Like everyone is making Dracula and Zorro movies now?

You wouldn't get everyone making Star Wars movies because that's a self-solving problem. Lots of Star Wars movies means each individual Star Wars movie would be highly unlikely to be profitable, solving any saturation problem pretty quickly. Additionally, smaller companies wouldn't find a big audience and larger companies would generally want to put some kind of new spin on anything they made that was based on an existing public domain property. Both of those factors would disincentivise a Star Wars movie.

You might get a quick rush of Star Wars films shortly after it become public domain (as well as some companies re-releasing the original in various formats) but things like that would settle down quickly.

We only have to look to what's already in the public domain and how that's treated to see that. The most common ways they're used is low-cost zero-modification re-releases, totally new works incorporating elements a public domain work (like Castlevania incorporates Dracula), or reimaginings with significant differences from the original (like a lot of the Sherlock Holmes stuff from the past few decades, or most of the famous Disney animated films). In every one of those cases there's a clear benefit to those works being in the public domain.
 
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Evilisk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,360
I'm not seeing a problem with "but they'll make lots of movies"

Yeah they'll make a bunch of movies. Then they'll stop being profitable once people get sick of them and that's that.

maybe we would've gotten some good ones

Damn lol

I'm too dumb to answer this question on a high level, so I'll just go with some personal feelings I have

I have a hard time giving a shit about a lot of movies that are based on characters that are in the public domain, like Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood King or Arthur or whatever the hell. It could be two other issues though, it could be that they just haven't made great ones for those characters or that it's more the antiquated settings that turned me off.

It's gotta be the first issue. I mean, I don't really care about King Arthur, but there's nothing about the premise of Robin Hood (a thief stealing from the rich to give to the poor) that shouldn't work today.
 

Pikelet

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,401
So weird to see people worried about movies being made about public domain ip. If it's bad don't watch it, if it's good then who cares that they didn't spend millions on purchasing the exclusive rights?

Literally the only downside to stuff going into the public domain is that some rent-seeking corporation can't have exclusive rights to milk an IP in perpetuity.
 

Furisu

Poutine on the Ritz
Member
Dec 5, 2018
2,991
They're fictional characters/properties. It doesn't matter. In fact, the more the merrier.

Perhaps we could get a Star Wars movie/show that isn't set in a desert/snow planet/jungle planet.
 

Broseph

Member
Mar 2, 2021
4,874
So weird to see people worried about movies being made about public domain ip. If it's bad don't watch it, if it's good then who cares that they didn't spend millions on purchasing the exclusive rights?

Literally the only downside to stuff going into the public domain is that some rent-seeking corporation can't have exclusive rights to milk an IP in perpetuity.
Straight facts
 

Addi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,244
Ok, so if I make a new cool IP, Disney or Netflix can just come in and make their own versions and just throw money at it so my version just gets lost?
 

KamenSenshi

Member
Nov 27, 2017
1,867
No. Dont think everything needs to just be some free for all. Then again I dont like reboot/makes/imaginings.
 

NeonZ

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,377
Did anyone get mad or did anything bad happen when Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and others went PD?

Sherlock Holmes' trademark owners still are rather litigious. It's why the recent Ace Attorney had "Herlock Sholmes". Capcom wanted to avoid any problems at all with them so avoided the name. Still, with the final book going public domain soon they will lose any space to cause problems.
 

nullref

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,055
Copyright is inherently a trade-off between incentivizing creative work by granting creators exclusive rights to profit from their work for a time, and allowing those works to enrich the shared culture beyond the control of the creator. Sure, public domain works can be diluted, debased, or just forgotten—but they can also be remixed and reimagined in ways that go far beyond what the original creator could have done, and that has value.

Copyright term is currently too long to be balancing that trade-off appropriately.
 

Catshade

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,198
What? Disney BUILT THEIR EMPIRE on public domain stories! You wouldn't get Gadget f'ing Zipper without the classics like Cinderella or Snow White!
 

Katmeister

Banned
May 1, 2021
2,434
My stance on copyright is pretty simple, I think creators should be allowed a reasonable window to give them complete control over their products in order to profit from their work. Where I disagree with current copyright is how long that window is, I think we could do with shortening it a bit tbh.

As for your concerns, I think its a bit silly tbh. Anyone can produce a work with the character Sherlock Holmes but the quality of that work or content won't affect the public image of the character. But even if it did, would it even matter. If somebody makes Star Wars 69 and its shit, will that matter when the good films are still out there to watch?
 

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,633
I think it's good for stuff to go public domain but it's not going to be the big bonanza of freedom some people think it will be. Some characters and stories will benefit more than others. Like, for the comparatively near future, once you have flying Superman with Lois in public domain you can make a pretty great Supes film. I don't think the same is true for other comic characters since their gestation was so long. There's also not a ton you can do with the first few decades of Disney films other than share them freely, most of those characters are already public domain. Mickey Mouse is iconic but as a character there's not much to him besides the recognition.
 

louisacommie

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,571
New Jersey
How I envision universal public domain under socialism( and further moot under communism where there is no money)

Like if you publish a book and someone writes a sequal before you like people would know that that book isn't the original authors canon, I mean they have the internet to look it up.
 

Tavernade

Tavernade
Moderator
Sep 18, 2018
8,633
How I envision universal public domain under socialism( and further moot under communism where there is no money)

Like if you publish a book and someone writes a sequal before you like people would know that that book isn't the original authors canon, I mean they have the internet to look it up.

Worth pointing out that huge chunks of the current population have yet to master the art of using Google to determine what time a business opens.

Though that might be moot if this socialist utopia also has fantastic public schooling.
 

Deleted member 25606

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
8,973
Ideally I'd just want copyright on creative works to be life of the author. Maybe tack 10-20 years afterwards for the family to make some money, if you really want to, but even that's pushing it for me.

There's no reason for a book/movie/game/whatever to be owned, administered, and profited off of by people who had nothing to do with its actual creation. Like, I have as much to do with the creation of Superman as anyone working at WB, y'know? It's so silly.
This is my opinion and has been for a long time and I have even shared it here In one of these threads ( where it started a huge argument). The rights should remain with the creator unless they willingly and without being scammed sell/trade/transfer the rights and even then there should be a clause in case it becomes worth millions of dollars. And then upon death, no matter where the rights are, with creator, sold/traded/transfers, no matter value it should become public domain.
 

PBalfredo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,496
I think it's good for stuff to go public domain but it's not going to be the big bonanza of freedom some people think it will be. Some characters and stories will benefit more than others. Like, for the comparatively near future, once you have flying Superman with Lois in public domain you can make a pretty great Supes film. I don't think the same is true for other comic characters since their gestation was so long. There's also not a ton you can do with the first few decades of Disney films other than share them freely, most of those characters are already public domain. Mickey Mouse is iconic but as a character there's not much to him besides the recognition.

Watchmen, one of the most acclaimed and influential comics in the industry, originally intended to use largely forgotten gold and silver age characters from Charlton Comics. It was only because DC Comics, which recently purchased Charlton, axed the idea of using the actual characters, so Alan Moore made original characters based off the Charlton characters.

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One of those influences, Peacemaker, has even been dusted off and currently has a well-regarded series on HBO Max from James Gunn and starring John Cena


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Point is, you can't just write off old characters and stories just because they haven't been used in a long while or handled well by their exclusive caretakers. There is no telling who out there could breathe life into an old character or use them as inspiration for something totally new and groundbreaking. So it's not just the hottest IPs or most well maintained characters who would benefit from going public domain.
 
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Gavalanche

Prophet of Regret
Member
Oct 21, 2021
17,480
If public domain didn't exist, you wouldn't get stuff like Dracula in a bunch of stuff. Sure there is some trash Dracula things out there, but there is also a lot of good. Hell, Disney made part of their empire on public domain characters.
 

apocat

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,058
I can't believe there are people seriously arguing against public domain. For real.

If anything, media should move into the public domain far far sooner than is the case currently.
 

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
My biggest fear is without the threat of legal action, many of these beloved characters may become twisted into pornographic fetishic caricatures.
As opposed to right now? Caricatures (pornographic or otherwise) are protected under fair use.

Please stop simping for corporations.
This. Fair use is "bad" in the same way as unionizing is "bad": it isn't, you've just fallen for corporation propaganda.
 

Mad

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,609
I like all the different takes on Sherlock Holmes the more traditional stuff is cool and then when they try and shove it into modern or semi modern

Different authors takes on the works or whatever. Some of it's complete garbage but overall at least it gives lots and lots of content for a character I find interesting
 

Nax

Hero of Bowerstone
Member
Oct 10, 2018
6,674
Idk. But I think it's funny that the first high profile Winnie the Pooh adaption is a fucked up slasher movie. Everything inevitably has to be "dark and gritty" I suppose.

Still gunna watch it.
 

KingM

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,480
There are multiple Pinocchio movies coming out this year and they're all distinct. One of the most fun things about telling stories and hearing them is the unique spin people put into their own tellings. It's why fan fiction is so fun.