Art From 1923 Is About to Enter the Public Domain. According to Critics From 1923, Here's the Worst of It

In 1998, Congress extended the terms of copyright for works published before 1978 from 75 years to 95 years. In practical terms, this meant that works of art first published in the United States in 1923--which would otherwise have entered the public domain in 1999--got an extra 20 years of copyright protection. On Tuesday, those twenty years will finally be over, and a large number of movies, books, songs, paintings, and at least one work of choreography (Ellen Tels' Persisches Ballett) will be ...