Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years—an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. Under those laws, works published in 1958 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2015, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2054 . Read more…
Original post:
What Could Have Entered the Public Domain in 2015?
Rambo Tribble writes: Many of the 300+ theaters showing The Interview on Christmas were rewarded with sell-out crowds. While reviews of the comedy have been mixed, many movie-goers expressed solidarity with the sentiment of professor Carlos Royal: “I wanted to support the U.S.” Despite sellout crowds, the movie’s limited release meant it only brought in about $1 million on opening day (compared to $10M+ for the highest-grossing films). Curiosity about the film seems high, since hundreds of thousands rushed to torrent the film, and others figured out an extremely easy way to bypass Sony’s DRM. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
The life of most migrant workers in Qatar is bleak—so bleak, it’s a human rights violation . The latest report from Doha reveals a new twist in the sad story. When they’re not toiling away at building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, many workers are being paid impossibly small wages to be fake sports fans . It doesn’t sound fun, either. Read more… 
The long-awaited ( and long-rumored ) Nexus 6, the 6-inch (technically 5.96) monster phablet, is finally, officially here . The Nexus 6, like its predecessors before it, will be the first device in the world to ship with Android’s new operating system, Lollipop. It’s the purest vision of what an Android phone should be. Apparently Android phones should be huge. Read more… 
Bootleg websites, usually tucked away in some shady digital corner filled with pornographic pop up ads and potentially malignant viruses, are a permanent fixture on the internet. Offering up tons of illegally free content, these sites’ creators are the reason why publishing execs toss and turn in their sleep. Read more… 
The FBI just switched over to Next-Generation Identification, a new digital system for keeping track of the 83 million fingerprint cards the bureau maintains. That means dismantling thousands of filing cabinets that were once hand-searched by Bureau employees, twenty-four hours a day. Here’s how they did it. Read more… 
If you’ve ever brewed beer commercially in the United States, chances are you’re familiar with a one Kent “Battle” Martin. Because as far as brewers are concerned, he is the Alpha and the Omega of beer labels— without his approval, you’re effectively screwed . Read more…