“Copyright’s awesome … but the fact that rights eventually expire, that’s a good thing, too, because that’s the wellspring for creativity,” says Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which spends months poring over records to compile the most famous examples.

Once in the public domain, these works become fodder for remakes, spinoffs and other adaptations.

Copyright is not currently awesome. It’s far too broad and long.

Once in the public domain, the works don’t even need to be monetized anymore (“… remakes, spinoffs and other adaptations…”). The important part is the ideas are once again owned by the culture that inspired them after a (should be) short monopoly.