Copyrights on all xxx-rated movies last forever even if they go back till 1970, do they not?
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Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Oct 15 2009 : 11:50PM
Forever is what the Hollywood majors, and especially Disney, would like to have. The original number keeps multiplying and Congress keeps docilely approving the increases. At one time it was 27 years, then more and more, now I think it goes over 100 years. There are different types of copyrights which may affect movie content. Screenplay/story, actual movie itself, music score, etc. I think Disney had problems with LADY AND THE TRAMP (1955) for quite some time due to the songs by Peggy Lee. Disney assumed it had full release of her songs, while she maintained it was only for theatrical release, NOT for VHS/DVD release. She ended up suing and won. With regards to the hc movies, it remains to be seen whether they were all copyrighted and properly. A lot of the original producers/distributors went out of business and no longer exist. You would need a battery of lawyers and copyright experts to do effective research and determine whether a proper copyright exists, whether they were renewed on time, and whether that particular title is in public domain or not. But why do you ask?
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious - Brendan Gill 723 Posts 4/09
Posted - Oct 16 2009 : 7:59AM
Without looking this up, I recall that copyrights are good for 28 years and may be renewed once -- total fifty-six years. No doubt thare are the usual legal loopholes and exceptions requiring a lawyer to translate. I do know that copyrights do NOT last forever.
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Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Oct 16 2009 : 9:45AM
27-28 years was the norm years ago, and then got doubled, and a few years ago when the first Mickey Mouse cartoons (made in 1927) were about to fall in public domain, Disney requested and got a hefty extension to over a 100 years (can you imagine the horror of Mickey falling in public domain!?). In this day and age a Hollywood major needs 100 years to recover/maximize their original investment? In what world? The original purpose of copyright was to ensure the original producer/writer/musician would be able to commercialize his work and make some money out of it (which was fair, even before mass media, internet). Now it's a f*** joke! Like I indicated, it depends whether the movie was properly copyrighted in the first place, whether the copyright was renewd, who has got the rights, whether the company or that particular title was sold to someone else along the line, etc. Edited by - Len801 on 10/16/2009 10:06:45 AM
Current american copyright law is life of the author/artist plus 70 years. Titles before 1923 are in the public domain. And you're absolutely right this keeps getting extended to protect Disney copyrights. Can't have Minny getting gangbanged by Mickey, Donald and Goofy This happened back in the 70s captured in a book called the Pirates and the Mouse. Disney's War against the Counter Culture In 1971, a group of underground cartoonists known as the Air Pirates put out a comic book parody of Disney cartoons in which Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Bucky Bug and others get high, have sex and swear a blue streak. Extremely protective of its characters' reputations, Disney sued-and turned what would have been a blip on the countercultural radar screen into a First Amendment cause celebre. The result was a classic post-Vietnam kulturkampf pitting artistic license against corporate copyright, and San Francisco's bohemian debauchery against Disneyland's disciplined wholesomeness. Levin's charming and thoughtful account, complete with reproductions of some of the offending cartoons, meanders through the history of the comic book industry, the rise of Disney to domination in the cultural marketplace and the intricacies of copyright and First Amendment law around which the litigation revolved. His anecedotal, shaggy-dog style is perfect for sketching indelible portraits of the quirky, romantic, incorrigibly stoned denizens of San Francisco's underground comics scene, whose mission it was to smash every false idol of square America and whose sensibility lives on in alternative weeklies across the land. If they did, as Disney claimed, besmirch the innocence of a national icon, the Air Pirates are themselves emblems of a lost idealism, of a time when people believed that sex, drugs and revolutionary rhetoric could liberate society from the rule of corporate entertainment monoliths. B&w photos. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Oct 16 2009 : 12:27PM
A lot of the early silent movies, in particular Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin kept circulating in bad copies for years and years. But Keaton had his negatives (Raymond Rohauer restored them and toured with them many years ago), and so did Chaplin keep them in his vault in Switzerland. He reissued them some years back on DVD. Beautiful, breathtaking originals. Disney is very protective of their material to the point of obnoxiousness. While they do plunder things in public domain (Cinderella, Snow White, etc), they do not want anyone invading their domain. As if Disney did make its money back from the first Mickey Mouse cartoons made in 1927-1928 that they had to get another hefty extension to copyright laws? But I thought that parodies of cultural characters were allowed in US laws (it has been done for Michael Jackson, and many others). How did Disney win out on the "Air Pirates" parody? The original poster has yet to explain the reason for the question.....
The reason i ask is because a certain company sells segments of different actress works burned onto one disc and I just wonder if they own the rights? I could ask but they would either lie or not answer me.
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Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Oct 16 2009 : 5:11PM
I doubt the people who are answering your e-mails or phone calls would know the legalities of it all. If you have serious thoughts don't order.. Otherwise what do you think will happen if you order one of those "compilations": the FBI/Interpol will come knocking/crashing through your door with guns blazing, handcuffing you and taking you away on copyright infringement? If you bought it in good faith, believing the company you bought it from was legit, I don't believe you need to be overly concerned. If you are buying the material from sleezy and unknown outfit, being deeply suspiscious of where the material comes from then you should stay away.
[But I thought that parodies of cultural characters were allowed in US laws (it has been done for Michael Jackson, and many others). How did Disney win out on the "Air Pirates" parody? The original poster has yet to explain the reason for the question..... [/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pirates
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Len801 Deactivated User
754 Posts 9/07
Posted - Oct 16 2009 : 5:43PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pirates
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Thanks for the link. Still I don't understand how the parody was decided as not being "fair use". Mind you, showing the characters consuming drugs and engaging in sexual activity quite likely did not help their case, I wonder if it had resulted any differently if they kept it to mild parody?
Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious - Brendan Gill 723 Posts 4/09
Posted - Oct 17 2009 : 10:28AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Pirates
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I think you are correct. But the same flaws in the legal system that allow the persecution of people in the porn inndustry in spite of very clear constitutional language forbidding such things is at work her IMO. History is full of cases where, for good or ill, law has been interpreted, and, when that was inconvenient, simply ignored. Beyond that, between the Law and its enforcement has always stood the desires of the public (e.g. prohibition's failure) the bias of judge or jury (as in jury nullification) and the persuasive talents of lawyers (IMO, O.J. Simpson is the poster boy for this one). The unique place in the public heart for Mickey Mouse, et. al. renders them as sacred as cows to Hindus: effectively above the Law and immune to ridicule.
