Honestly baffled by all the folks—especially creative folks—Holmesplaining why the Doyle estate is suing Netflix.

Especially when pretty much every one of these explanations admits the estate still holds copyright on some character elements for another 18 months or so.

Is the reasoning behind their lawsuit nonsense? Yeah, probably. I don’t know the last few stories well enough to be absolutely sure. But I mean, it IS their copyright.

So a simple question—how long before copyright expires *should* holders stop defending it?

I mean, this was decided by a judge in the Klinger case. Some of Holmes is still theirs.

So, how long? A year and a half is clearly too much. Should people stop defending copyright three years out? Five? Ten?

Again, nonsense lawsuit? Probably. But--again--it is their copyright.

And it’s super frustrating to me, after that court decision, to see fellow creative people still complaining about copyright being defended.

Because I’ve seen a lot of them also complain bitterly when their own work is stolen and their revenue streams are crimped.

Personally, I’m kinda glad to see the estate diving in so some precedents get set on this whole “partially public domain” thing. Much better--for a few reasons--they chose Netflix rather than the ton of writers and artists they could’ve just crushed with legal fees.

Because holy crap, the next few years are going to be a serious nightmare for a lot of creative folks. You think the Doyle estate is bad? How do you think Disney’s going to act when Mickey Mouse goes partially into public domain in three and a half years?

Think Warner Brothers is just going to let folks do whatever they want when Superman and Batman start sliding into public domain in ten years? That they’re going to say “well, these other elements are PRACTICALLY in public domain... what the hell, go ahead, have fun with 'em!”

Because of that "partial" ruling, this is the first of many, MANY lawsuits like this we’re going to see over the next ten-fifteen years. People should be paying serious attention to it.

Because I guarantee Disney and WB are.

I am seriously glad the Doyle estate is suing. And I’m very glad they’re suing someone who can fight back.

Because it might save a lot of other folks some huge headaches down the line.