Copyright protections were originally designed to incentivise creators and allow them to profit from their work, but what happens when the artist is a machine?
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THIS week saw something that hasn’t happened in decades. On 1 January, the US copyright protection on a host of books, films, sheet music and artwork expired. Works from 1923, including silent movie The Ten Commandments and Charlie Chaplin’s film The Pilgrim, have now entered the public domain.
These works were granted a copyright extension by a 1998 law signed by US president Bill Clinton that retroactively added 20 years’ protection to works created in 1923 and later. That time is now up. …