vbangle is right. There is a certain period of time that copyrights are supposed to expire. Its just that the goverment keeps extending that period of time, so that that time never comes. Some things have expired, because the original copyright holders didn't renew/extend them. Go to Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Target or whatever discount department store is in your area, and see the bargin bin of DVDs/videos. They are full of old movies that weren't published by their original copyright holders, because they are now in public domain.