I dont know if this is already happening or not but what about if tv shows and movies were in public domain? I say this because Im watching "A Night at the Movies" about holiday movies and they said that "Its a Wonderful Life" was in public domain and thats how people got to watch the movie because it would be on all the time and on multiple channels. They said it wasnt supposed to be a Christmas movie and it was supposed to be released in March or April and the reason why its such a huge movie is because it was on all the time and people watched it and word of mouth based on that.

Maybe we should try that for holiday movies. Instead of Its A Wonderful Life being only on NBC maybe they should be public domain so we could watch it whenever we want. We talk about how certain shows are never on or sometimes on but at least in public domain, we wouldnt need DVDs or have certain studios dictate if and when they could show these shows.

While that would be nice, something just can't "be" public domain. For a show or film to enter the public domain the original copyright holder must not renew it after the original term has expired. Which means they outright give up all of their profits that could be made from it. So nobody in their right mind would write off any profits. Some shows/films show very little profit margins and thus are purposely allowed to expire. And some are simply overlooked and accidentally expire into the PD. That's why there are handfuls of episodes from The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies, etc that have ended up as PD material.

Point being, Paramount (or whomever currently owns It's A Wonderful Life) is simply not going to give up their licensing profits. The film is a rare case in that it was in the public domain and the owners were able to convince the courts they really owned it once it became profitable again. Nowadays the copyrights last longer and have a more watchful eye on the record keeping. So don't expect anything with licensing value that is currently copyrighted to enter the public domain.

The Copyright Laws need a MAJOR OVERHAUL. There are so many TV Shows and Movies that are not available via legitimate means because of these Laws.

Case in point the 1966 Batman and the Walt Disney Movie Song of the South. From all indications both of these would be BEST SELLERS if the Studios made them available to purchase on DVD. Unfortunately the former is mired in a quagmire of red tape that can be narrowed down to Corporate Greed. 20th Century Owns the Series but Time-Warner owns the name, and both sides cannot agree on how to share the royalties. There are other issues as well, many of the Stars who played "Guest Villians" are deceased. and their Relatives demand a "Cut" of the royalties as well. The latter apparently is not "Politically Correct". It takes place on a Pre-Civil War Plantation, and it shows the "Slaves" Going Happily to and from their work in the fields. This does not fare well with certain Minorities, and the Studio fears there will be repercussions if this film is released to the public, or even shown on TV or re-released to the theaters. Therefore these two, as well as countless others, remain unsold.

This fares well with the Bootleggers as well, go over to ioffer.com or sell.com and check out all the titles available. I do not envy the Authorities who's job is to enforce the Copyright Laws. They do their best to enforce them and put the coller on whoever breaks these laws, yet for every bootlegger they put out of business, two or more immediately take their place. Talk about a thankless job!

The way these laws are written, many TV Shows and Movies will not become Public Domain until we are all dust in the wind. I read somewhere the Copyright Owners can renew the Copyright until something like 70 years after the last name mentioned on the credits has passed away. There should be a reasonable limit that would let most of us be able to view these shows, as most of them cease being profitable after a few years. When the first Copyright laws were written, they lasted only 16 years, and were not renewable. I'd like to see that happen again, but with only ONE Renewal which would last 16 years, and that would be it.

And what are the chances of seeing that happen? I have a better chance of seeing the Detroit Lions win the Super Bowl.