Tag: copyright

The Bad Guys Love The Law When It Is On Their Side

You only think you own what you bought.

I once wrote a line in a play that I cribbed from my mother that always got applause, “Just because it’s legal, don’t make it right.” I’d like to assume that most folks who might read a thing or two here understand that far too many laws have been written not to protect everyone or make things right, but instead to often give cover for blatant acts against the little guy in favor of the big guns. 

Copyright laws when used as a weapon to further corporate interests and feather CEO nests have been one of the  favorite tools for the bad guys. That’s been an ever increasing problem paralleling the advance of technology as more and more companies reject the idea that if you bought it you own it, and still claim rights that too often are protected by laws that were never written to contemplate the world we find ourselves in. 

With a hat tip to Denny Henke, take a look at this video from Louis Rossmann about a recent example of this. 

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. 

Good Books Now In The Public Domain

Terrific early work by famous authors among this year’s entries into the public domain.

In addition to being the first day of the New Year, January 1 is also known as Public Domain Day, when titles previously under copyright enter the public domain in many countries, including the U.S.

Shutterstock 2494525843.

This year’s titles include a host of good books by some authors you might have heard of including William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammett, Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, Edith Wharton and Mahatma Gandhi among others.

Standard EBOOKS is celebrating by providing links to twenty of the titles available to download in different formats that should work with most ebook readers.

These book titles, were first published in 1929. I won’t get into the length of copyrights and all the issues surrounding that, but instead say this is an interesting collection of works, some early or first works by some of the authors listed above.

Keep in mind that on Public Domain Day a number of titles in other media also entered the public domain. Duke University publishes a more extensive, but not complete list that includes titles of plays, movies, characters, music compositions, art,  and sound recordings. The date for sound recordings is 1924 and includes Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.