Mondrian Entered the Public Domain. The Estate Disagrees

(copyrightlately.com)

89 points | by Tomte 2 days ago

5 comments

  • theragra 2 hours ago
    As always, copyright is a supressor of creativity, not an enabler. Copyright terms should be 10-20 years max, or up to death of an author. Even current regime is ridiculous.
    • edent 58 minutes ago
      "Up to death" would provide a perverse incentive for people to kill creators in order to liberate something from copyright.
      • cubefox 35 minutes ago
        Maybe 100 years after birth instead.
    • B1FF_PSUVM 2 hours ago
      It's rather incongruous that you register intellectual property for very little - and have states enforcing your rights for free - while a piece of land pays property taxes.
      • simonh 1 hour ago
        Creators pay tax on their income.

        We all get legal protections for our property.

        • boomlinde 13 minutes ago
          Real property owners also pay tax on their income. Income is taxed. Real property is taxed. Intellectual property is not.
          • brookst 6 minutes ago
            IP is next to impossible to appraise, unlike land.

            It’s pretty easy to ballpark what a lot of house or office building is worth based on comparables that sold recently. IP doesn’t sell that much and comparisons are harder.

      • stevekemp 1 hour ago
        > while a piece of land pays property taxes.

        In some countries taxes are annual.

        In the UK you pay taxes when you buy/sell property, or land. You don't need to pay land/property taxes every year.

        • lanceflt 47 minutes ago
          Council taxes are property taxes and are monthly.
          • dghf 38 minutes ago
            Well, technically they're annual, but you're allowed to pay them in arrears over 10 or 12 months.
      • ivell 2 hours ago
        IPR is a form of incentive for creators in service of betterment of the society (it also could be detrimental like Mein Kempf though). On the other hand real estate does not need such extra incentives. Need or greed is enough.
        • GuestFAUniverse 1 hour ago
          The book title is "Mein K_a_mpf".

          It's related to the latin "c_a_mpus" / battle field -- like most European languages, there are close relationships to the neighbors. While there were shifts in sounds: in this case not.

      • piaste 1 hour ago
        The enforcement isn't the issue, it's the scarcity.
  • bonzini 2 hours ago
    I read "The duration of the U.S. protection for all other works… was for 70 years from the artist’s date of death" and thought wow, did Mondrian really live into the 1960s or so?

    Next paragraph: "Mondrian died in 1944. Any of his works subject to a life-plus-70 regime would have entered the public domain" 10 years ago. Who even thought of including that in a legal argument??

    • input_sh 13 minutes ago
      Life + 70 has always been an oversimplification, we still haven't even reached 70 years since the introduction of these rules (1973 in the US, in other countries depends on when the US strogarmed them into adopting similar rules).

      There's all sorts of quirks for anything published before that rule got standardised more-or-less worldwide, but in general 1930-1945 is still like a legal grey area that can be challenged in court and you should be good to go for anything published before that. And don't get me even started on posthumous publications, that's a whole different can of worms where a family member might claim some contribution (like for example Anne Frank's father), pushing the copyright further to the life of the author + life of that family member + 70.

    • Someone 1 hour ago
      based on your comment (the site is unresponsive, so I cannot check what exactly it says) I think the article is incorrect.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_St...:

      “For works published or registered before 1978, the maximum copyright duration is 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication. Copyright renewal has been automatic since the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992.

      For works created before 1978, but not published or registered before 1978, the standard §302 copyright duration of 70 years from the author's death also applies. Prior to 1978, works had to be published or registered to receive copyright protection. Upon the effective date of the 1976 Copyright Act (which was January 1, 1978) this requirement was removed and these unpublished, unregistered works received protection. However, Congress intended to provide an incentive for these authors to publish their unpublished works. To provide that incentive, these works, if published before 2003, would not have their protection expire before 2048.”

      • masfuerte 1 hour ago
        You quote a section about unpublished work. The painting was published nearly a hundred years ago so the quote isn't relevant. If you think the article is wrong please state how.
        • Someone 10 minutes ago
          I don’t see that. “For works published or registered before 1978, the maximum copyright duration is 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication” may not apply here, but if so, it isn’t because the work was published.
  • PowerElectronix 1 hour ago
    Copyright doing what it does best. Killing new works that resemble a bit too much anything under its protection and allowing rentseekers to live off others.
  • comrade1234 2 hours ago
    [flagged]
  • jacquesm 1 hour ago
    The Mondrian estate... don't get me started on that one.