It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that my company’s IT department was bracing for a major new line of work. Back in the mid 1990s, we were going full steam into client-server technology. At the same time, we were significantly expanding our workforce. The IT department that had spent years as an old-style mainframe shop, was suddenly inundated with requests for new workstations, network user IDs, new network domains, permission requests, and requests for application access privileges. Our lone mainframe permissions person quickly felt overwhelmed and a little baffled by all of these … [Read more...]
[OT] When Does Media Content -Truly- Become Public Domain?
January 20, 2010 by 1 Comment
I've always been intrigued by our process for allowing creative content, such as songs or movies, to become public domain. A common usage for public domain might be to create a short family video and, seeking a peppy and familiar piece of background music, you settle on "The Entertainer", by Scott Joplin. (If you've never heard of it, listen here. You'll recognize it.) Since the music is past the 75 year limit of copyright protection, it is now public domain - meaning that you don't have to pay or seek permission to use it for your family home video. Now, it seems that many old media … [Read more...]
