New Petition Idea * 2011-2111 * the next 100 years without

Generally it's assumed that the blu-ray set will not include the Theatrically shown movies. And since GL and LFL seem to be formulating the Saga6 as the goal not any of the individual films, there will not be any future release of these films as they appeared opening day. Not in theaters, not in the home, nowhere.

So how long will this continue. U.S. Copyright is currently Life of Creator + 70 years. George is 66, let's say he lives to 97 (the SE age/year) that would mean Star Wars goes Public Domain (as long as copyright is not modified) in 2111.

So starting this year for the next 100 years, the Star Wars movies as shown Opening Day will not be shown with LFL consent.

100 years.

yeeha.

I would like a t-shirt.

Motion pictures fall under the category of "works made for hire" and thus fall under corporate and not personal copyright; Lucas doesn't own the films, his company does, but he owns the company so he found a loophole to control them to his personal desires. Copyright for the SW films is owned by Lucasfilm LTD (and formerly Twentieth Cent. Fox for the first film). There was a pretty big copyright extension law put into place in 1998, which complicates things by dividing lines between before and after 1978, but it looks like corporate copyright is the same across the board.

Corporate copyright protects the works for 95 years (increased in 1998 by 20 years from the previous 75) from the date of publication. This means Star Wars will enter the public domain in 2072. Empire Strikes Back enters the public domain in 2075 and Return of the Jedi in 2078.

This is not quite as dramatic as 100 years, but at roughly six decades from now, probably most of us here won't be around to see it, and certainly no one who actually saw the films in their original release will be able to. I'm sure that in 2077 there will be a really big "Star Wars 100th Anniversary" thing where people will finally be able to show the original version with complete freedom. Maybe I'll be around, showing our fan preservation discs as museum pieces from the ancient days when rebel fans tried to keep the films alive using things like analog NTSC video copying and mail-order trading.

Yeah yeah yeah you and your logic and correct stats.  I want a t-shirt!  and a scary viral campaign...

...so the 2019 Mickey Mouse II copyright extension will push your corporate 95 years to a few more, so i'm still going with my 2111 estimate.

Caveat * ignore the fact that 134 or an extension of 39 years makes no reasonable sense* but 95 or life+70 makes no sense to me, so what me worry.

I'm not familiar with the MM copyright extension thing, can you explain it to me?

The short version being the 'Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act' of 1998 is pejoratively referred to as the 'Mickey Mouse Protection Act'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act

After the 1976 copyright extension, the U.S. put people like Ronald Reagan (actor) as president and congress people like Sonny Bono (musician) [replaced by his wife, Mary, who ''authored'' the copyright reform and was not well versed in the matter]  The phun quote being:

Actually, Sonny wanted the term of copyright protection to last forever. I am informed by staff that such a change would violate the Constitution. ... As you know, there is also [then-MPAA president] Jack Valenti's proposal for term to last forever less one day. Perhaps the Committee may look at that next Congress.

Effectively putting people affiliated/friendly with the Content Control Industries in control of the law making process. Making internal lobbying that much easier. They've effectively pushed for longer terms, by swaying Senators like Orrin Hatch who so despirately wants to be part of that scene. (Orrin Hatch is the senator who after learning about napster, said it was ok for companies to *nuke* computers found using the application. Orrin Hatch makes ""music"" and at one point had free samples on his website, loaded with DRM so that you had to own the CD to play the free sample. Genius.) In 1998 if copyright wasn't extended, Mickey Mouse would have gone Public Domain in 2003/4. They pushed things back and now it's 2023 or 2036.  (that work for hire argument)