Why I Love Public Domain

As I say frequently, we stand on the shoulders of titans. Much of what we all do as writers is built on what other writers have accomplished. They plowed the road for us, pretty much. I talk to many wannabe writers who claim they want to do something "completely original" or they won't write at all. I guess they'd better give up now and get real jobs, eh? Anyway, tell me the last truly ORIGINAL concept, will ya?

I didn't think you could, and that's okay. After all, Dr. Joseph Bell, along with E.A. Poe's August Dupin, Sir Henry Littlejohn, and Émile Gaboriau's Monsieur Lecoq, served as inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Doc Savage, The Phantom, and The Scarlet Pimpernel contributed to Jerry Siegel's vision of Superman, which a little bit of circus showperson for Joe Shuster to draw. And in turn, how many characters have Holmes and Superman, alone, inspired? I'll fess up that my Santastein is an obvious parody of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: The Post-Modern Promethus and Vulcana is a continuation, of sorts, of the old Charlton Comics character, Son of Vulcan. Wonder Woman, with a dash of Xena, Warrior Princess, was the foundation for my Conflict short book.

The purpose of public domain was to give old works of visual and written art new life through exploration by fresh minds, after the creator was able to monetize their creation for a fixed period of time. The period of ownership varies, depending on where in the world one happens to be.

That period of monetization used to be 14 years with a renewal of another fourteen, later turned into two 28-year periods. Also, a special symbol, ©, had to be affixed to the work and it had to be registered with the Federal Copyright Office. However, the laws changed in the mid-70s to where the mere act of creation gave the creator automatic copyright, lasting 56 years. Registering with the Copyright Office granted the Intellectual Property (IP) owner the right to take a plagiarist to trial in the hopes of scoring a financial penalty on the knave, as well as possible jail time. Almost every creative work published in 1922 or earlier is in the Public Domain (PD). This means that everyone can use them without any payment to the creator. Also, every document created by someone working for the Federal Government is automatically PD.

Copyright is NOT to be confused with Trademarks. Trademarks, as long as they are properly defended, are pretty much eternal. That's why some works of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Arthur Conan Doyle are in the public domain, but since the two estates own the trademarks of Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes, it's ill-advised to use those characters brazenly. (However, SOME pre-1923 Sherlock Holmes stories are PD, due to a court ruling of several years ago. So you can have him pining for Irene Adler, but don't have him buy a dozen beehives for his retirement because then you're in potential hot water. This gets complicated, sometimes.)

In the mid-90s, then-Congressman and former pop singer/songwriter/producer Sonny Bono sponsored a bill that extended the length of copyright. This was mostly brought on by lobbyists for Warners and Disney. It turned out that the clock was ticking on Superman and Mickey Mouse, the two companies' chief bread winners, and it was worth spreading the wealth so that the two IPs didn't go into the public domain. Now, the duration of copyrights is based on an amount of time after the demise of the creator (or in the case of a collaboration, whomever dies last). Since many corporations are seen as a living entity in the eyes of many courts, how long can a copyright remain in effect if the company still exists. Also, the duration of copyrights vary from nation to nation, which complicates the situation further. If that wasn't enough, while some creative works may be in the public domain, the characters may still be protected by a copyright in the event of creating a new version of a PD work, such as colorizing a film or redesigning a character. And then there's "abandoned copyrights," where the IP owner isn't around, or whomever (whether it's an individual or a company) bought the rights from a creator does nothing to protect the copyright. Heck, they might not even be aware they own it. I told you this was complicated. Here's an interesting article that theorizes that the 1923 starting line for active copyrights may begin moving forward soon: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/01/hollywood-says-its-not-planning-another-copyright-extension-push/ ... it's not easy reading, but it's interesting and a good overview of the copyright situation. However, there are numerous writings in the public domain as it stands. Archive.org features a number of works that have gone PD because of the age of the work, or the copyright wasn't renewed when it should have been (which is how Burroughs lost the copyright on the first five Tarzan books and the first three John Carter of Mars works). There's plenty of inspiration to be found in what has seen print before.

Remember, if Romeo & Juliet wasn't PD, then we'd never have gotten West Side Story. Alan Moore and Alex Ross have made comics based on characters no longer in copyright. Heck, I'd never have been able to create Santastein if a descendant of Mary Shelley still held the rights to the great lady's classic horror tale.

I will tell you is copyright your work for your own protection. Also, to truly see if something is in the public domain, consult an attorney who specializes in copyright law. There are too many "experts" on the Interwebs that know nothing about copyrights and stretch the truth simply to justify using a copyrighted character. And just because something calls itself a "wiki," that doesn't mean they know what they're talking about. But search the public domain for inspiration. Change a little bit about the characters until it becomes something fresh. As I detail in Vulcana: Rebirth of the Champion, it started out as an homage to Charlton's Son of Vulcan. Then I thought to bring the strip from the Sixties to the current day, change the identity of the character, do a gender-swap, and it's a whole new person, Angelique Forge.

So go seek inspiration in what's been done before. Be a Tim Gunn and make it work.

NEXT WEDNESDAY: The Joys of Self-Publishing

NEXT THURSDAY: Something else that's on my mind. Who knows what it will be?

SPECIAL NOTE: My newest book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove, will be out on Friday, February 2nd, 2018. It's part memoir, part grimoire. The first half deals with my entry into writing indie comics and joining Silver Phoenix Entertainment. I print four of my comic scripts for The Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove, three of which have not been produced yet. Then I add four horror prose tales, three of which are NEW. All this behind a great cover by my Art Sherpa, Trevor Erick Hawkins, over 300 pages of terror and history for only $19.95.

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