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The origin of copyright law takes us back to the 1710 and Queen Anne, the Monarch who

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had just overseen the Unification of England and Scotland into then, brand-new Great Britain.

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Also on her busy schedule was the Statute of Anne: the very first copyright law. It

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gave authors control over who could make copies of their books or build on their work a limited

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time. Later a group of rebellious colonists, thought

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the Statue of Anne was a good idea, and so copy/pasted it into their own constitution

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giving congress the power: “To promote the Progress of Science and

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useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors… the exclusive right to their

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respective Writings”. Basically, copyright is a contract between

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authors and society: if you promise to make more stuff, we promise not to copy it or build

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on it for 28 years. Here’s an example from the modern day: let’s

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say you’re trying to be a director and you’re looking for a project to get started.

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Harry Potter is a story you’d love to remake. But since J. K. Rowling published ‘The Sorcerer’s

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Stone’ in the United States in 1998 it still has copyright protection, so you can’t use

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it. Instead you need find something from a long

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time ago, like, for example: Star Wars: A New Hope!

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George Lucas released Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977! That’s more than 28 years ago,

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So great! Get filming! Alas, no.

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While Star Wars should have lost copyright protection in 2005 it’s actually copyrighted

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until 2072! That’s 95 years after publication, not 28!

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So you can’t use it unless Lucas lets you. Why does his copyright last for ages?

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Well, as long as there has been copyright there have been authors arguing that it’s

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too short. And perhaps, they’re right. How’s a poor

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guy like George Lucas supposed turn a profit in the mere 28 years between 1977 and 2005?

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There was only the first theatrical release of ‘A New Hope’,

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And the theatrical re-released in 1978 and 1979

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and 1981 and 1982

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and then there was the 1982 VHS and Betamax releases

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the 1984 broadcast television release the 1985 Laser disc release

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the 1989 widescreen Laser disc release the 1990 VHS re-release

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the 1992 widescreen VHS release the 1993 Laserdisc re-release

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the 1995 VHS re-re-release and the 1997 special edition theatrical release

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Han shot first, you bastard. and the 1997 VHS special edition release

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and the 2004 DVD release And now you, dear filmmaker, come along and

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want make your own version of Star Wars: a New Hope? For shame!

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That like stealing food right out of George’s Lucas’ mouth.

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Four times Congress has agreed with authors that the length of copyright is too short

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to turn a profit and so extended it: First in 1831 from 28 years to 42 years, then

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again in 1909 to 56 years, in 1976 to the lifetime of the author plus 50 years, and

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in1998 to the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.

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That’s a great deal for authors who have already made stuff, but does it really help

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society get more movies and books? It’s hard to imagine, for example, that

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Edgar Rice Burroughs started writing ‘A Princess of Mars’ and ‘Tarzan’ in 1911

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because the copyright laws had just been extended and would not have done so otherwise.

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Or that J. K. Rowling, while living on benefits in Scotland, was busy doing the math and wouldn’t

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have written Harry Potter if the copyright protection was just for her whole life and

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not an additional seven decades thereafter. Because, exactly who needs incentives after

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they’re dead? Dead is the point at which literally no incentives in the whole universe

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can motivate you to write one more screenplay. Because you’re dead.

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If you’re the kind of person who is only motivated by plans that unravel after your

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demise, you’re either amazingly awesome or deranged.

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But so what? So what if every kindergartner’s macaroni artwork is protected by copyright

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for 175 years? Why does it matter?

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Because the main beneficiaries of copyright after death are not the authors, or society

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but companies. Companies like… Disney. Remember all the good old Disney movies?

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Yeah, all of them came from works no longer under copyright protection at the time.

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The whole of the Disney Empire and all the childhood magic that it produces only exist

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because there was copyright free work for Walt Disney – you know the guy who actually

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started the whole company – to rework and update.

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But the corporate, Waltless Disney was the big pusher of the 1998 life +70 years copyright

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extension. It made sure that no one could make more popular versions of their movies

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in the same way they made a more popular version of Alice in Wonderland.

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This near-infinite control subverts the whole purpose of copyright which is to promote the

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creation of more books and movies, not to give companies the power to stop people making

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new creative works based on the efforts on their long-dead founders.

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New directors and authors need the freedom to take what came before to remake and remix

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(romeo & juliet, emma). And they should be able to use creative material from their own

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lifetime to do so, not just be limited to the work of previous generations.

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At the turn of the century, George Lucas wrought upon civilization a new word: anticipointment.

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The tremendous let-down that was the lazy, bland, and soulless new trilogy.

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George Lucas’s was completely within his rights to make those movies into the sterile,

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toy-marketing vehicles they were. He owned Darth Vader and could tell the origin story

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as he wished – and that’s the only version you’ll ever get to see.

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But, imagine for a moment, if copyright still worked as first intended.

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In 2011 the whole of the original Star Wars trilogy – all of its artwork, its characters,

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its music – would have left copyright protection and been available to aspiring directors and

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writers to build upon and make their own versions of.

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There would be a treasure trove of new Star Wars stories for fans to enjoy.

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But as long as the current copyright laws remain as they are, no living person will

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ever get to tell a Darth Vader story, or a Harry Potter Story, or a Hobbit Story or any

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other story that matters to them, that the author or, when after their death, their company,

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disagrees with.�