[xmprt]

I'm not a copyright expert and if you told me that Harry Potter was common domain then I'd probably be a bit surprised but wouldn't think it's crazy. The first book came out 30 years ago after all. On further research the copyright laws are way more aggressive than that (a bit too much if you ask me) but 30 years doesn't seem quick. Patents expire after 20 years.

[jacquesm]

It would be incredibly naive to assume that a moneymaker like that is PD.

[uniq7]

Sherlock Holmes is public domain and there are still shows being announced

[jacquesm]

New Sherlock Holmes works are copyrighted. Not by Conan Doyle...

[ijk]

I find this fascinating, as I keep observing that there are pretty widespread differences between what people believe copyright does and what the law actually says.

[manarth]

The Berne Convention (author's life + 50 years) is the baseline for the copyright laws in most countries. Many countries have a longer copyright period than Berne.

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

[alsetmusic]

I think even people who don't care about how broken the copyright system is understand intuitively that huge commercial properties that are contemporaneous with themselves are protected. They don't need to know any details to know that these properties belong to massive companies and aren't free for the taking.

How many people think they can rip off Disney characters even if they don't know how much Disney lobbied to extend their ownership? People can observe that no one but Disney gets to use them and understand, even if not consciously, that those are Disney's to use.

^ Probably poorly written without time to proof cause time constraint.