… in the US isn't growing much, largely because so many copyright holders (Disney being among the most famous) keep twisting Congress' arms to keep extending copyright. So here are some works, under the law until the late 70s could have entered the Public Domain today, meaning that they could be reissued (paying the people doing that work), remixed, remade, derived from, or used as an inspiration by someone other than the corporate entities that own these works.
The original idea of copyright was to allow the creator (and, perhaps, their immediate heirs) a reasonable period to make money from their work, encouraging them to create new works without fear of immediate piracy. Now the idea of copyright seems to be to allow the creator to sell their rights to a large media company which can then profit from them indefinitely.
I certainly believe in creators profiting from their work. But even leaving aside the issue of orphaned works that you can't actually be sure are orphaned, the current copyright regime is not serving the public good. #ddtb
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What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2012?