Why Isn’t Batman in the public domain?
Link here. As a writer who makes my living partly on the royalties I earn, I have still opposed every change to the copyright laws since 1978, as each change has extended the length of copyright far longer than was necessary to protect my rights. The result has been a concentration of power, in this case among a few corporations, something that should always be avoided.
Instead, the Congresses we have had in the past forty years have willingly corrupted the law in the worst possible way.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Link here. As a writer who makes my living partly on the royalties I earn, I have still opposed every change to the copyright laws since 1978, as each change has extended the length of copyright far longer than was necessary to protect my rights. The result has been a concentration of power, in this case among a few corporations, something that should always be avoided.
Instead, the Congresses we have had in the past forty years have willingly corrupted the law in the worst possible way.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Bob, I apologize for the offtopic comment. There is something strange about your blog in that whenever I visit it, it’s only updated in my browser to how it was display when I last visited. I have to explicitly reload the site to see the newer postings. Yours is the only site I have this problem with.
This happens to me in Chrome on both Windows and Android. I wonder if others are having the same problem and not understanding they will site your newer postings after they hit the reload button in their browser.
At a technical level, this is probably an issue with the Expires and/or Last-Modified fields of the HTTP headers in the pages associated with your blog. There may be a setting in your blog software or web server to properly control these values.
BTW, on your past recommendation I purchased your book “Leaving Earth” on Amazon and I’m about half-way through it. Very good stuff.
I have the very same problem on one PC, but not at all on another. Both use Windows 7 and Chrome.
I don’t see anything wrong with extending copyright for individuals so that they can leave their descendants an income. you wouldn’t repossess somebody’s house after they died or demand their jewellery. Works of literature are just heir looms handed down like many other things. People leave land to their children to provide them with a future income so what is the difference?
I think things change a bit if the original author sells the rights to a big corporation. Since they had no input to the creation I think they should be allowed a reasonable time to profit on it , say 50 years from the date of the original purchase, before it reverts to the public domain.
I think that allowing others to use somebody else’s characters or plots to create new works is not a good enough argument against copyright. If they lack the imagination to generate something new themselves I think it unlikely that what is produced will improve on the original. This is more likely to produce pale imitations that have more to do with earning money than creating literary masterpieces.
I have forwarded you comment to my web guy to see if there is something we can do about this.
I have the same situation, I lost two weeks stuck on one story before I posted something and realized what was going on. Now every time I sign on and while signed in I now always remember to click reload. I think it started just after the new format was revealed.
I also must empty the cache and turn off my mobile device and reboot to get the current version and postings of the website.
I’m not a big fan of the public domain, unless I choose to place my work there.
My software guy Shane has adjusted some settings. He says give it a few weeks and the site should no longer require this kind of fiddling.
I read a sci-fi book concerning this topic where computers in the future filed billions of patents on musical note combinations, color variations, speech phrases and quotes. Everything that could be patented including genetic variations was under indefinite patent rights. You can’t imagine the future, the entire world was controlled.
Everything was recorded and you paid royalties on everything you said, every process you used, including teaching your own children. no new paintings or music could be created unless you come up with a novel way that hasn’t been patent before.
Dupont got an extension on its chlorofluorocarbon patent extending it another 20 years which ended in the 80s resulting and cheap refrigerant for everyone.
With the help of the Sierra Club, Dupont was successful and lobbying to get its own product banned from the market with a $10,000 fine for anyone caught using it just so they could sell a replacement product at 10 times the price. All in the name of saving the ozone layer from a product that is many times heavier than air. (keep in mind, free chlorine is everywhere. It’s in the drinking water, it’s in the swimming pools, it’s poured into the washing machine, it is released by the ocean when salt breaks down, but being released in small quantities in a stable molecule became a crime against nature)
Dupont made billions more dollars over a fraudulent claim that is still being perpetuated today. New kinds of refrigerant have been created but none are as stable and cheap or reliable or as efficient and healthy as the old stuff.
I hear China is buying old patents and is charging a fortune. Especially for antibiotics that still work. My brother used to help sorting computer code pattens purchased from Ma Bell. They are the root source code for many programs today.