January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1930 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1925! By Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle[1] CC BY 4.0 Please note that this site is only about US law; the copyright terms in other countries are different.[2] On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925.
Just think how much culture could be enriched (through derivative works) if US copyright was rolled back to its original term: 14 years with an option to renew it once for 14 more.
I get why you would want an artist to be able to live off his own works for his entire life. Otherwise, they’d be losing their royalties at the end of their lives when they need it the most, while others are out there, still making money off of their art.
However, how long should heirs continue to sponge off the work of their parents and grandparents?
However, how long should heirs continue to sponge off the work of their parents and grandparents?
And how long should they continue to sponge off the rest of society, whose taxes pay for copyright administration, adjudication, and enforcement? Each one of these monopolies costs money, and it’s the rest of us who are stuck footing the bills… for an awfully long time.
And then there’s the matter of big corporations routinely buying copyrights and sponging off of us for all that time.
Just think how much culture could be enriched (through derivative works) if US copyright was rolled back to its original term: 14 years with an option to renew it once for 14 more.
I get why you would want an artist to be able to live off his own works for his entire life. Otherwise, they’d be losing their royalties at the end of their lives when they need it the most, while others are out there, still making money off of their art.
However, how long should heirs continue to sponge off the work of their parents and grandparents?
And how long should they continue to sponge off the rest of society, whose taxes pay for copyright administration, adjudication, and enforcement? Each one of these monopolies costs money, and it’s the rest of us who are stuck footing the bills… for an awfully long time.
And then there’s the matter of big corporations routinely buying copyrights and sponging off of us for all that time.
Valid