Free at last

On January 1,2012,the works of James Joyce,Marina Tsvetaeva,Virginia Woolf,Rabindranath Tagore and Sherwood Anderson,among others,entered the public domain (except in certain jurisdictions). In other words,they can be freely read,used and modified by anyone,with no legal obligations to the writers estates. Now,Joyce can be read,performed and celebrated without fear of his glowering grandson,who has gone as far as to sue a biochemist for inserting a quote in a scholarly paper.

Much of the literature and music of the 20th century is still locked out of reach,because of meaninglessly stretched copyright laws. Fair use has been steadily whittled around the world. After the 1998 Sonny Bono Act,the US froze the public domain copyright can often last for more than 100 years now. Even orphan works,from which no commercial value can be wrung,moulder under copyright. Under the 1957 act in India,copyright extends to 60 years after the authors death. Copyright was originally meant to ensure you could make a living off your expressive talent,and make sure your creativity then flowed to the public commons. Now,acknowledging the dues of authorship often means depriving the world for the sake of grandchildren and great grandchildren who had no part in its creation.

Whatever their benefits,these hyper-extended intellectual property laws cramp creativity,because they block people from accessing,and repurposing with,older works. So much of our art is crucially inspired by artistry Shakespeare borrowed from Boccaccio,T.S. Eliot shored up his work with plundered fragments,and Disney,the most zealous enforcer of copyright,freely filched from myth and fairytale around the world. Would Joyces own Ulysses have been possible without the great wellspring of the Odyssey? We need a robust public domain,and a concerted movement to prevent further erosion of it.