You're only arguing against the claim about copyright terms by equating two separate definitions of "public domain." public domain is being enriched by that stuff from the early 20th century. The "public feeling" stuff of the 1999 internet wasn't actually in the public domain then either.
The public domain has gotten larger as has the private domain. But all that private stuff is now on track to expire one day, while in 1999 it was not clear that that would ever happen at all.
Compared to 1999, a lot more of that "private domain" stuff is also being made freely available, price-wise.
I support copyright expiration, but making Disney's copyright portfolio worth less when they continue to create a bunch of stuff was never an explicit part of that goal for me.
> public domain is being enriched by that stuff from the early 20th century.
Well this is trivially true, but it really doesn't mean anything. If copyright length was 500 years this would still be a true statement.
It's ridiculous that there are 100 years old works of art created by people who have been dead for three quarters of a century which are still under copyright. You cannot spin this as a positive thing, I'm sorry.
Works published two years after the end of World War I will enter public domain in 2047 (Agatha Christie's first book). Star Wars will enter public domain in the 2070s. It's mad.
> It's ridiculous that there are 100 years old works of art created by people who have been dead for three quarters of a century which are still under copyright. You cannot spin this as a positive thing, I'm sorry.
One counter-argument I've seen when I've taken your side is that some works are higher quality for society (in some fuzzy, aggregate sense) because they have gatekeeping that maintains the image of a given copyrightable work.
If we are talking about cultural consumption as a status symbol (or maybe: that a thing having status makes consuming it more enjoyable or more likely)
Well, then there are still the thing that have copyright today!
If you are talking about some cultural space being exausted because of remixing (say, overuse of the mona lisa makes people less interested in it) -- well, this seems not to be the case, but anyway, we could have specific legislation to avoid this effect and still have copies for people to enjoy
(not that I support that, I bet its not a big problem when compared to the massive boon of accessibility)
If there was any fixed copyright length, then true. But the lawmakers were changing it, maintaining the "last thing to enter the public domain" constant
The public domain has gotten larger as has the private domain. But all that private stuff is now on track to expire one day, while in 1999 it was not clear that that would ever happen at all.
Compared to 1999, a lot more of that "private domain" stuff is also being made freely available, price-wise.
I support copyright expiration, but making Disney's copyright portfolio worth less when they continue to create a bunch of stuff was never an explicit part of that goal for me.