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Yeah ever since famous characters started becoming Public Domain, you have many people on social media who are completely against it. To the point where they want copyright to last forever to prevent stuff like Blood & Honey and Infestation 88 from being made. I mean just because someone did something you don't like with a character, no one should benefit from the existence of the public domain?
This is just Sturgeon's Law in action, and it's COMPLETELY NORMAL for there to be a lot of garbage to get made first before we get the few gold nuggets worth sifting through the trash for. We will get plenty of good material from new works that far outweigh something like Mickey's Mouse Trap. Those kinds of products gain infamy in the short term, but will soon be forgotten for the drivel they are when we get something genuinely good. I mean look at Fumi Games' Mouse as an example.

Also even if those people get what they want and Copyright lasts forever, I can think of several reasons why that would be a VERY bad idea:

1. Corporations like Disney and Warner Bros ALREADY make trash with the IPs they own and they aren't public domain. Velma, The Banana Splits Movie, The CW Powerpuff Girls show, Masters of the Universe Revelation, The Current crop of Marvel & DC comics, MCU Phase 4, Rings of Power, Gollum, The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and the new expanded universe being examples. They get to do those because they currently have the monopoly on those stories and have become complacent. Not seeing the need to actually make quality products their audience wants since they think that people like you and me are just mindless consumers who will swallow ANYTHING they make because of their brand and nostalgia.

At least if those IPs were PD than you WILL have some genuine fans of those IPs make good content. And if they were Public Domain, those companies will HAVE to improve their quality in order to actually compete in the free market.

2. How would a forever copyright work? If the creator of a IP died with no family alive who picks up the copyright? The publisher forever?
Because with copyright being so long, lasting way after the creator died, is not about helping artists and creators, but companies that own the copyrights.
Companies can last centuries, and if they shut down they just sell everything to another company. When media companies go bankrupt, they sell all their copyrights to pay the debts.
Plus, the biggest media franchises are owned by companies, not their creators. Either because creators were screwed, had no choice but sell everything in exchange for the work getting made, or there are contracts where if they create something when working for a company, it's instantly owned by the company. I mean look what happened with Jerry Siegal & Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby and the many other creators who got screwed over by their companies and don't get so much as a red cent for royalities.

3. There is also the thing with Orphan Works & Abandonware. IPs and products that are no longer legally available due to stuff like a studio shutting down or they get bought out by another company and that new company doesn't do dick with their acquired IPs. Or in the case of companies like EA and Marvel, either milk that IP till it's dry and then keeping it in their vaults when they are no longer profitable to them. Hoarding them like a dragon's hoard of plunder and preventing people who love those IPs from getting their hands on them and give them some much needed life. I mean remember Malibu's Ultraverse that Marvel bought decades ago and hasn't done a damn thing with since their acquisition? And that's not getting into stuff like MMOs and Live Service games that end up getting their servers shut down with no way for the customers who bought the games to get their money back or be allowed to make their own servers to continue playing.

How I would fix this is to have a law that in order for a corporation to hold its copyright for 95 years they are legally required to either create derivative works or provide some form of access (physical media release, theatrical release, streaming release, etc.). They are given a grace period of 12 years to let the property lay dormant and/or inaccessible, but at the end of 12 years there needs to be a new release of either a new original derivative work or a re-release of the work for public consumption otherwise the copyright will be terminated early and the work released into the public domain.

This would only apply to corporate works, not works copyrighted to an individual author (that remains Lifetime+70 Years). This rule would only kick in for works a corporation bought from an author if the original author elects not to enforce their right to copyright termination and reclamation and the 12 year timer would begin the moment the window for the original author to reclaim their copyright has expired.

4. You have estates like JRR Tolkien's estate that is run by people who are only related to their ancestor by blood and never actually met them in person & have no actual genuine love for LOTR. Being so far removed from their ancestor that when Christopher Tolkien died and his son, Simon Tolkien, was in charge, they treated Middle Earth as a means to get a lot of money without actually putting in the work. They are parasites who don't care about the integrity of their ancestor's work and will exploit the hell out of it for profit because it's so popular. If copyright was much shorter, than those relatives will HAVE to get off their ass and start creating themselves if they want to continue to profit off of their ancestor's IP. And they will also be forced to compete with genuine fans who will treat the IP with more respect than Amazon had been with LOTR.

And that concludes my rant on this issue. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Description
Yeah ever since famous characters started becoming Public Domain, you have many people on social media who are completely against it. To the point where they want copyright to last forever to prevent stuff like Blood & Honey and Infestation 88 from being made. I mean just because someone did something you don't like with a character, no one should benefit from the existence of the public domain?
This is just Sturgeon's Law in action, and it's COMPLETELY NORMAL for there to be a lot of garbage to get made first before we get the few gold nuggets worth sifting through the trash for. We will get plenty of good material from new works that far outweigh something like Mickey's Mouse Trap. Those kinds of products gain infamy in the short term, but will soon be forgotten for the drivel they are when we get something genuinely good. I mean look at Fumi Games' Mouse as an example.

Also even if those people get what they want and Copyright lasts forever, I can think of several reasons why that would be a VERY bad idea:

1. Corporations like Disney and Warner Bros ALREADY make trash with the IPs they own and they aren't public domain. Velma, The Banana Splits Movie, The CW Powerpuff Girls show, Masters of the Universe Revelation, The Current crop of Marvel & DC comics, MCU Phase 4, Rings of Power, Gollum, The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and the new expanded universe being examples. They get to do those because they currently have the monopoly on those stories and have become complacent. Not seeing the need to actually make quality products their audience wants since they think that people like you and me are just mindless consumers who will swallow ANYTHING they make because of their brand and nostalgia.

At least if those IPs were PD than you WILL have some genuine fans of those IPs make good content. And if they were Public Domain, those companies will HAVE to improve their quality in order to actually compete in the free market.

2. How would a forever copyright work? If the creator of a IP died with no family alive who picks up the copyright? The publisher forever?
Because with copyright being so long, lasting way after the creator died, is not about helping artists and creators, but companies that own the copyrights.
Companies can last centuries, and if they shut down they just sell everything to another company. When media companies go bankrupt, they sell all their copyrights to pay the debts.
Plus, the biggest media franchises are owned by companies, not their creators. Either because creators were screwed, had no choice but sell everything in exchange for the work getting made, or there are contracts where if they create something when working for a company, it's instantly owned by the company. I mean look what happened with Jerry Siegal & Joe Shuster, Jack Kirby and the many other creators who got screwed over by their companies and don't get so much as a red cent for royalities.

3. There is also the thing with Orphan Works & Abandonware. IPs and products that are no longer legally available due to stuff like a studio shutting down or they get bought out by another company and that new company doesn't do dick with their acquired IPs. Or in the case of companies like EA and Marvel, either milk that IP till it's dry and then keeping it in their vaults when they are no longer profitable to them. Hoarding them like a dragon's hoard of plunder and preventing people who love those IPs from getting their hands on them and give them some much needed life. I mean remember Malibu's Ultraverse that Marvel bought decades ago and hasn't done a damn thing with since their acquisition? And that's not getting into stuff like MMOs and Live Service games that end up getting their servers shut down with no way for the customers who bought the games to get their money back or be allowed to make their own servers to continue playing.

How I would fix this is to have a law that in order for a corporation to hold its copyright for 95 years they are legally required to either create derivative works or provide some form of access (physical media release, theatrical release, streaming release, etc.). They are given a grace period of 12 years to let the property lay dormant and/or inaccessible, but at the end of 12 years there needs to be a new release of either a new original derivative work or a re-release of the work for public consumption otherwise the copyright will be terminated early and the work released into the public domain.

This would only apply to corporate works, not works copyrighted to an individual author (that remains Lifetime+70 Years). This rule would only kick in for works a corporation bought from an author if the original author elects not to enforce their right to copyright termination and reclamation and the 12 year timer would begin the moment the window for the original author to reclaim their copyright has expired.

4. You have estates like JRR Tolkien's estate that is run by people who are only related to their ancestor by blood and never actually met them in person & have no actual genuine love for LOTR. Being so far removed from their ancestor that when Christopher Tolkien died and his son, Simon Tolkien, was in charge, they treated Middle Earth as a means to get a lot of money without actually putting in the work. They are parasites who don't care about the integrity of their ancestor's work and will exploit the hell out of it for profit because it's so popular. If copyright was much shorter, than those relatives will HAVE to get off their ass and start creating themselves if they want to continue to profit off of their ancestor's IP. And they will also be forced to compete with genuine fans who will treat the IP with more respect than Amazon had been with LOTR.

And that concludes my rant on this issue. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.