Archive.org The Public Domain And Basic Copyright

I know what alot of you are thinking, "You can't download movies or music for free, Legally" Wrong. If The Copyright for the item has expired it goes into the public domain. Meaning anyone can do whatever they want. A Prime example is Abbott & Costello in Africa Screams. I have seen heaps of copies for it (normally for less than $5) from different manufacturers.

basic copyright stuff: You make a movie and claim copyright on it, it's yours. Unless you license this you say who copies it or not (legally), The copyright applies for as long as you live. When you die the copyright is still valid, just you are no longer the copyright holder. Whoever inherits it is, And They have copyright for another (depending on national laws) number of years, In Australia and (I Think) The U.S it's 70 years after death. After copyright expires the works go into the public domain. Meaning anyone can do whatever they want with it. For example I Could mash up old songs, put my own soundtrack over a movie.

Ah yes, archive.org is one of my favorite sites to browse when I'm looking for something to do and I've gotten my share on trap17 and google reader. Probably my favorite part of that website is the wayback machine where you can browse archives of what a certain website looked on any particular date from 1996 to today. Brings back old memories of what the internet used to look like before using javascript/css/ajax was the norm.