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2019 Will Gift Us With a Huge Release of Copyrighted Works Entering the Public Domain - Observer
Due to the Sonny Bono Copyright Act, a long-awaited expiration date on copyright restrictions that comes at the culmination of New Year’s Eve means that starting with the first few minutes of 2019, all works that received authorized publication in the U.S. in 1923 will become part of the public domain. It will be the largest collective copyright expiration in more than 20 years—since before Google was around to make accessing anything up for grabs extremely easy.
Entrance into the public domain means that anyone who wishes to can rerelease the works without having to obtain permission from the previous owners, and without having to compensate them.
Works published in 1923 are finally being made available because of 1998’s Sonny Bono Act (formally known as the Copyright Term Exclusion Act), which increased overall copyright protection for works published before 1978 to a total of 95 years after their publication date. On January 1st, 2019, exactly 96 years after 1923, the agreement will be rendered void.
Due to the Sonny Bono Copyright Act, a long-awaited expiration date on copyright restrictions that comes at the culmination of New Year’s Eve means that starting with the first few minutes of 2019, all works that received authorized publication in the U.S. in 1923 will become part of the public domain. It will be the largest collective copyright expiration in more than 20 years—since before Google was around to make accessing anything up for grabs extremely easy.
Entrance into the public domain means that anyone who wishes to can rerelease the works without having to obtain permission from the previous owners, and without having to compensate them.
Works published in 1923 are finally being made available because of 1998’s Sonny Bono Act (formally known as the Copyright Term Exclusion Act), which increased overall copyright protection for works published before 1978 to a total of 95 years after their publication date. On January 1st, 2019, exactly 96 years after 1923, the agreement will be rendered void.