Yes, we have no copyright

I just saw a commerical using the Prince [1] song “Let's Go Crazy”. It was something I wasn't expecting because Prince had refused all requests to use his work for commericals (as well as turning down all requests from Weird Al Yankovic [2] to parody his songs). But given that Prince died back in 2016 it seems his estate has waited long enough and is now enjoying the licensing fees.

Then it hit me—it won't be until 2086 that the works of Prince will fall into the public domain. Nearly a hundred years since some of his most iconic hits.

In other copyright-public-domain news, today [3] is the first day in 21 years that works have fallen into the public domain. It's weird to think that up until yesterday, “Yes, We Have No Bananas [4]” was still in copyright.

=> [1] https://www.princeestate.com/ | [2] http://weirdal.com/ | [3] https://law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/ | [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes!_We_Have_No_Bananas

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