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A comment on For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter Public Domain. Parent comment

Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by teddyh on Thursday December 20, 2018 @06:02AM (#18723910)
If the hypothetical movie studio from your example could not have used the song because of copyright, they would not have used the song, leaving the artist just as bereft of benefits as before – there is no change for the artist either way. If the movie studio can pick the best song from all available non-copyrighted songs since there are a large number of them, the artist will still not benefit but the movie studio might make a better movie, benefiting them and thereby the economy and society as a whole, even if nothing changes for the artist.
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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by fiblye on Thursday December 20, 2018 @07:04AM (#18724178)
But now we have movie studios who are (generally) paying for rights to use a song that was popular a few years ago, or they're paying for original soundtracks.

Reduce copyrights to just a few years and Hollywood, with all the parasites in it, would just lift songs like there's no tomorrow and further dodge paying a cent to the artists involved.

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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by nicoburns on Thursday December 20, 2018 @09:49AM (#18725309)
Perhaps, but we'd be free to use their content as we saw fit too. Overall, I think reduced copyright would benefit the smaller artists (who might not be able to afford to license prior art now).
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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by bluntfang on Thursday December 20, 2018 @07:47AM (#18724424)
I am OK with using this logic when it comes to individuals using media for non-profit purposes, but movie studios are out to make money. Saying "if it didn't exist they wouldn't have used it" is taking away from the final composed project that includes many artists and mediums.
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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by vidarh on Thursday December 20, 2018 @08:20AM (#18724644)
So differentiate between copyright periods for personal use and commercial use.

Many countries used to have strong explicit exemptions for personal use, but even just making it shorter in time for personal use would make a huge difference.

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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by goto11 on Thursday December 20, 2018 @07:09AM (#18724206)
Movies and TV use copyrighted music all the time - they just pay the copyright holder for licensing it.
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Re:For First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works W... by Nursie on Thursday December 20, 2018 @12:53PM (#18727186)
Nonsense, they may well have paid a license fee. As frequently happens now.
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