Direct quote from the page:

Please note that this site is only about US law; the copyright terms in other countries are different.[2]

On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon

  • sns@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    21 hours ago

    We’ve been robbed of the public domain - pirate everything with a clear conscience.

    • gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Yeah, it’s currently Life of Creator + 70 years, which is fucking ridiculous

      • Limonene@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 hours ago

        Has any software ever entered the public domain through copyright expiration? I think software at least 70 years old (125 years for corporate created) when its copyright expires prevents it from being any benefit at all.

        • richmondez@lemdro.id
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          11 hours ago

          Worse, unless you have the source code to that 70 year old software it’s probably even less useful.

        • gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          11 hours ago

          Software in general is actually very hard to copyright, as you cannot legally copyright code, the most you’re allowed to do is patent the process the code is doing.

          More often the copyright applies to everything else, like the brand, and the UI

          • richmondez@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            11 hours ago

            No, copyright applies specifically to the code, eulas and copyleft such as GPL rely on that fact. The logic itself can’t be, but the specific implementation can. It’s why clean room reverse engineering is fine, but a tainted decompilation direct from a binary may not be.