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You're not the only one who is upset with our current copyright laws. I was looking into the idea of getting into the business of making DVD's out of old, obscure movies and selling them through fanzines like Filmfax and others. Then I researched the current copyright laws. Holy Moley! You would not believe how those laws have been changed over the last ten years!

Bottom line: There is no such thing as "public domain" any longer, with the exception of movies made before 1927. Anything after that is pretty much off limits. This means that if you or I make a copy of a movie made in 1935, and sell it to someone else, we are taking the risk of being sued for a LOT of money.

Think about it. Patents only last seventeen years, but copyrights last pretty much forever now. Isn't that special?

Don't get me wrong, I think that people who make movies should own them for a long time. I would have no problem with copyrights lasting up to forty years. But after that they should go into the public domain. As it is now there really is no such thing as "public domain" any longer.

I'll give you an example. Remember the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" (1947)? That's a public domain movie, right? Wrong. It was considered to be public domain for a long time, but then some lawyers filed suit, and got a ruling based upon a technicality that reverted the copyright back to the original owners. So now if you want to show "It's a Wonderful Life" you have to pay royalties. This is for a movie made in 1947! A fifty-seven year old movie! Give me a break!

Patents only last seventeen years, but copyrights last pretty much forever now.

This is the key point. Thanks to the Supreme Court, any "limit" is permissible as long as the word "perpetual" isn't used. Personally, I think 40 years is way too long. Twenty is about enough - the work is probably going to make most of the money it'll ever make within that time frame.