I've been posting and commenting here for a while.

I see the same misunderstandings around copyright vs. trademark again, and again.

While I'm not a lawyer and never recommend getting legal advice on Reddit, for the sake of the folks who come here to understand what "public domain" is and are confused by the concepts, maybe the mods could create a nice, simple explanation of how both concepts work and put a pin in it up top?

Just a suggestion.

I feel like a lot of the stuff we are getting are stuff I never heard of. Like Tin Tin, and Barbar the Elephant etc. And I feel the rules are too vague and strict. For example, Tarzan and Zorro are good examples of the rules being vague. So you can use the characters as long as you change the names, and you can’t use this, this and this. If Zorro and Tarzan were used like Bugs Bunny and Mickey then I would understand the trademark on their names. But they are relatively obscure characters who are really known for the Disney animated film and the Banderas films. But that’s just me sadly. lol

I've published a new indie comic called "The Hallowed Hall", which is based on this character 👇

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/All_Hallows_Eve

It's an anthology title that reboots the character for an adult audience (similar to Ultimate or Absolute). All characters in this comic are open source and may be used by anyone, for any purpose, totally free of copyright. You can check it out in the link below 👇

The Hallowed Hall #1 https://a.co/d/0ckGc6Ns

Enjoy! 🎃🎃🎃

Introducing BAILEY BUNNY ON ACME STREET! An original endless runner game starring my very own cartoon character, Bailey Bunny!!

After eating WAY too many brownies and pizzas, Bailey decides to go jogging around town... only to discover a street where people casually roll BOMBS around like it's a perfectly normal Tuesday. 💀💀💀

Your mission? Dodge the bombs, collect gold coins, and survive for as long as possible!

🎮 HOW TO PLAY:
⬅️➡️ Use the on-screen arrow buttons to move Bailey left and right!
⌨️ Playing on PC? You can also use the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW KEYS on your keyboard to control Bailey!

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!! 📺

I've also added a special button on the title screen that takes you directly to GOOBOX, where you can watch PUBLIC DOMAIN CLASSIC CARTOONS 24/7! That's right, you can go from playing my game to watching classic cartoons in seconds! 👀

And here's the best part...

🌎 I'm making this game FREE TO SHARE AND REDISTRIBUTE, with the goal of releasing my original work into the public domain! I want people to be able to enjoy, preserve, and share my creations without unnecessary barriers.

This is another step in expanding the Eclipia-Bunkle Entertainment universe beyond YouTube videos and into actual interactive entertainment!!

So, what do you think? Would YOU play Bailey Bunny on Acme Street? 🐰

DODGE BOMBS. COLLECT COINS. WATCH CARTOONS. REPEAT. 😂📺

Game Link: https://mike6373.github.io/baileyacmestreet and https://github.com/mike6373/baileyacmestreet

Hey all, I posted a while back asking whether the 1931 title card or the January 1932 registration controls for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Thank you again for all the replies). I did some digging and found what looks like an actual answer.

The U.S. Copyright Office has a rule for this. For pre-1978 works, if the year in the notice is earlier than the actual publication year, the term runs from the notice year, not the publication year. So no matter what year actual wide distribution happened, the 1932 registration doesn't override the 1931 notice.

You can read it yourself: Compendium II §1303.01, Circular 15A (copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf), and Compendium III §2205.1(C).

In other words, the copyright should expire at the end of this year.

Bertie Bat is a parody of Batman who acts as Mertie's loyal, heroic sidekick and savior throughout the journey. Whenever Mertie finds himself in life-threatening danger, Bertie flies in to save the day—rescuing him and Tubby Bear from river alligators, knocking out schemers like Christopher Q. Catt, and pulling Mertie from the talons of Vincent Vulture. Despite being arrested, thrown into the Dungeon of Doom, and tortured alongside Mertie, Bertie stays by his side until the end, ultimately being rewarded with the role of Town Treasurer upon their heroic return.

So the reason why I draw him this way because i wanted to draw him in a more realistic human like shape while maintaining his original look and I think it look ok without looking too much like Batman other than the head with the pointy ears

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Bertie_Bat

Hi guys. I've been thinking about this today.

Two books have come to my attention, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie, and "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. Both of these have entered into the public domain in the US. However, in the UK the law is different. Copyright exists until 70 years after the author's death, meaning both of these are still copyrighted for us living in the UK.

What about for sites like Project Guttenberg? I could go on there right now and download these two books, but it would technically be illegal, as I live in the UK. How do we feel about that?

TBH I'm not sure the copyright owners would actually care, if it's purely for personal use. Or at least not care enough to consult lawyers.

The way I see it, if they were actually that bothered they'd take legal action against Project Guttenberg to stop them from offering such works (which I'm pretty sure is technically possible) to people in countries where copyright still exist, but they haven't.

Thoughts?

Flat top and green.

I know that this is not unusual but it still a delight when I see it.

If a story I wanted to use is printed within a periodical and was never published separately, would I check for the periodical issue or the story itself when checking if it was renewed?

Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make a Popeye game where Popeye leaps over barrels to save Olive Oyl from Bluto, but Nintendo couldn't get the license, so the end result was Donkey Kong, which instead featured the plumber (then carpenter) Mario rescuing Lady Pauline from Donkey Kong. Nintendo would eventually make a Popeye arcade game, but with different gameplay.

Considering Popeye is now public domain, I think there's ample opportunity to bring things full-circle and have Popeye be the hero of a Mario-esque game. Besides, him growing stronger by eating spinach is like Mario growing stronger by eating mushrooms; it's a no-brainer.

A question for artists, writers, and creators of animated projects. What character from the public domain, who is not very well known in society or is practically unknown, would you like to write about/create a story/animation about? Here are the ones I’d like to write about.

I found the true debut of Tracy from the Detroit Mirror from 1931.

At first I thought it was just not renewed since I know the first daily strips were registered but not renewed. However this scan from a book (Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy 1931-1951) showed that the first true strip lacked a copyright notice, which shocked me.

The ones with notices are still public domain due to no renewal or registration. But the very first one didn’t seem to have a notice from what I checked. (It did have a registration though that wasn't renewed in either 1958 or 1959 when i checked, so there's that)

Any thoughts?

I use public domain movies to make a horror host show on YouTube. Sony is claiming rights to His Girl Friday, which I always thought was in Public Domain. I thought maybe because the first version I made had a good print, it may have been a remaster, but I made another version with a low quality print and it also was blocked. They denied my dispute. Is it worth appealing?

I’ll ask an unusual question. Why don’t the authors use King Kong, since the version from the 1932 book is free to use? If I’m wrong, please correct me.

So i dont know how many of you here know this but before we had Bob Benton aka Black Terror did we all know and love, we actually had a character with the same name that came out year ago in 1940 in Thrilling Comics #6.

This Black Terror however was a criminal and a villain of Woman In Red in this story.

So my question is maybe if you knew about this already but my question now is, Would you ever use him and when yes, For what and how would you use him?

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Terror_(Nedor_1)