I was looking thru the library of congress website for some background music and was amazed that the newest non-governmental work they had available for download was from 1919. All the others ranged from around 1890. No wonder america is the laughing stock of the world. Of course the world isn't laughing now since they have now had similar copyright laws forced on them by hollywood.

So I did a little internet search and found this interesting and extremely disheartening article regarding public domain films. Yes it's several months old but still interesting.

If anyone can convince me that copyright still serves it's original intent I'd be amazed.

Enjoy!

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http://dagblog.com/arts-entertainment/your-new-year-public-domain-report-2012-12627

Your New Year Public Domain Report: 2012



Happy New Year, all. My spouse and I spent part of
yesterday evening at our local revival house, watching a classic New
Year's Eve double-feature of The Thin Man and After the Thin Man. Then
we adjourned to a favorite bar for midnight; after all, that's what Nick
and Nora would do.



By coincidence, midnight last night was the moment when After the Thin
Man was once set to enter the public domain. But of course, it didn't. For the 34th year in a row, nothing new entered the public domain,
which has been basically frozen in place since 1978. Under the original
copyright laws in force when it was made, After The Thin Man should
have entered public domain 19 New Year's Eves ago, during the first
second of 1993. (Obviously, the earlier Thin Man movie would have become
public domain even earlier.) A major copyright extension act in 1976
pushed that particular date back until the wee hours of this morning.
And then, of course, another copyright extension law in 1998 (the
Millennium Copyright Act or Sonny Bono Act), pushed that back for
another twenty years. So After the Thin Man will cease to be private
property on New Year's Day, 2032, 96 years after its theatrical release,
under the current schedule. Look for that date to be pushed back again
in five or six years, when Congress comes under pressure from the big
media companies to extend the copyright term another 20 or 25 years.



So there's nothing new under the public domain's
tree this year, but I'd like to list some of the movies, books, and
recordings that would have become public today, under earlier versions
of the law:



If not for the Millennium Copyright Act:



Porky Pig would enter the public domain today, as would Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.



Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times would enter in the public domain today,
as would Mae West's Go West, Young Man, Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to
Town, and a host of others: My Man Godfrey, Tarzan Escapes, Ballots or
Bullets, Swing Time, Intermezzo, Charlie Chan at the Opera, Reefer
Madness, Hitchcock's original Secret Agent and the original Anything
Goes.



Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind was set to
exit copyright today, as was Double Indemnity, Dos Passos's The Big
Money, Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes!,
Ayn Rand's We, the Living and of course Keynes's General Theory of
Employment, Interest, and Money.



The songs "Good Night, Irene" and "Pennies from Heaven" should have
entered public domain today, as should a bunch of other classics from
the American songbook: "A Fine Romance," "The Way You Look Tonight,"
"It's De-Lovely," "Easy to Love" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." (The
last three by Cole Porter, who was on an especially hot streak.) The
public domain should also include classical music by Bartok, Barber,
Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev, whose ballet Romeo and Juliet
appeared in the same year as his Peter and the Wolf.



According to the Sony Bono Act, all of these works are too new to enter the public domain until 2032. People need a chance to make a little money off them before that happens.



If not for the Copyright Act of 1976:



Under the copyright laws in force when they were
made, Rebel Without a Cause, Marty, The Seven-Year Itch, The Blackboard
Jungle, Lady and the Tramp, and To Catch a Thief would all have entered
public domain today. So would Davy Crockett, Guys and Dolls (with Brando
and Sinatra), Oklahoma!, Kiss Me Deadly, The Man with the Golden Arm,
East of Eden, Godzilla Raids Again and Abbott and Costello Meet the
Mummy.



Also entering public domain today would be The Lord of the Rings (whose
final volume would be leaving copyright), Moonraker, The Talented Mr.
Ripley, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Waiting for Godot, Notes of a Native Son,
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, William Golding's The Inheritors and
Nabokov's Lolita. (The last book was not published in an
English-speaking country until three years after the others on this
list, but was published in France, in English, in 1955.)



The musical public domain would be enriched today
by "Rock Around the Clock," "Folsom Prison Blue," "Unchained Melody,"
"Blue Suede Shoes,""Charlie Brown," "Tutti Frutti" and "Maybelline." If
early rock and roll isn't your speed, they'd be joined by a batch of
Sinatra classics: "Love and Marriage," "The Tender Trap," "In the Wee
Small Hours of the Morning," and an old Doctor Cleveland favorite,
"Learning the Blues."



However, federal law has subsequently determined that none of these works count as oldies yet. Under the current schedule, they are all slated to enter the public domain in 2051.
And of course, it might take much, much longer. All that's certain is
that next New Year's Day there will again be nothing else in the public
domain, the same way it's been since January 1, 1979. And as we approach
January 1, 2019, there will be a major campaign to keep anything from
entering public domain ever again.