Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/January 1

Today is Public Domain Day, today ... presents! Tonight, copyright expired for a new batch of old media. 70 years (in most countries) after the authors’ deaths, they finally belong to all of us. Why wait that long? Because in the 16th century poor artists’ families had it rough, so copyright revenues for dad’s works were supposed to provide for two generations of descendants. Oh, and also the Mickey Mouse Act: that is, because the Disney corporation in particular wanted it that way. (Only big franchises profit from the repeated copyright term extensions.) Otherwise we’d have free Mickey Mouse, and that would be outrageous, wouldn't it?