the.com/copyright law
the government's way of saying good idea, now pay the person who had it first.
means a legal monopoly granting creators exclusive rights to copy, distribute, and profit from their original work for a limited time.
from born from britain's statute of anne in 1710, which broke publishers' permanent monopolies on books by giving authors a 14-year term instead — the first law to treat copying as the creator's right, not the printer's.
disney's lobbyingcopyright terms extended repeatedly as mickey mouse neared public domain
automatic protectionyou own copyright the instant you create something, no registration needed
ideas excludedlaw protects expression only, never the underlying idea itself
absurdly longin the us, lasts author's life plus 70 years
for instance
happy birthday song — warner/chappell collected royalties until a 2015 lawsuit freed it
steamboat willie — entered public domain in 2024 after a 95-year copyright term
oracle v google — 2021 supreme court ruling on copying java apis for android
sonny bono act — 1998 law that extended us copyright terms by 20 years