A U.S. Court has ruled that Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous British detective, is in the public domain. The ruling came after Doyle’s estate sued Leslie Klinger, a writer of stories inspired by the Holmes canon, claiming that she needed to pay licensing fees. Some of the Holmes stories are already in the public domain, and others aren’t—nonetheless, the court ruled that the fictional characters of Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson are themselves fair game for whoever finds themselves inspired by them.
So, got any Sherlock fan fiction lying on the shelf? Might be time to dust it off.
This story caught my eye not just because I like Sherlock Holmes (though I do), but because I actually find intellectual property issues interesting. Though it may seem boring, intellectual property rights are important, and should matter to anyone who thinks that art and creativity matter to culture. The whole purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage creativity, and it does this in two ways:
1). Enables creative people to make money off of what they create by protecting their intellectual property, and
2). After a certain amount of time has passed, allows intellectual property to pass back into the public domain to serve as fodder for creative people making new things.
The second part of that equation is so important. If Arthur Conan Doyle’s intellectual property hadn’t been protected when he first wrote A Study in Scarlet in 1887, he may not have written the rest of the Sherlock Holmes stories—and that would be tragic. But now, in 2014, the Doyle estate’s claim to the Holmes character does nothing to advance creativity in culture. It merely makes them richer. At a certain point, the best thing to do for artists and for the culture is not to protect intellectual property that’s effectively become capital for a select few, but to let it pass into the public domain, where it may provide inspiration for something new.
That doesn’t always happen. Frequently, Congress votes to extend intellectual property rights, preventing intellectual property from passing into the public domain even after the person who created it is long dead. And that’s a bad thing. The point of intellectual property isn’t make to some amazing artist’s great-grandkids wealthy. The point is to make more artists.
That’s why I cheer whenever I see old intellectual property pass into the public domain. And it’s why today’s news is good for more than just Sherlock fan fictioneers.
