The Public Domain Archive: The Curious case of pornography
Quick note: This post will discuss pornographic material and even name some of them, but it will not contain any example as such. I think this makes the article safe for work, but you know you're own workplaces and what is and isn't acceptable material far better than I possibly could so use your own judgement.
Erotic art and entertainment, or porn as its known on the street and the web has created some curious wrinkles for copyright and the concept of intellectual property. Pornographic works were for a long time considered illegal and still are in some jurisdictions. And while over the course of the 20th century there has been a trend of decriminalisation and legalisation of pornography, though some kinds are still criminalised and remain taboo. And even in parts of the world that have had a relaxed attitude to erotic work it still carries stigma. I was listening to a podcast hosted by two friends who have worked for years in film and television in the crew departments, the subject of pornographic films came up and one of the hosts related an anecdote of how some of his workmates have earned extra money working for porn production companies. Even today in liberal California working on porn movies is considered damaging to career and reputation so the practice of pseudonyms is still very common even for camera and stage work.
This is a bit of a problem for the concept of copyright and the public domain. In most of the world the ownership of a work and for how long is attached to an individual or a small group of individuals, which if you don't know who they really are presents an issue for how you can approach the owners for permission or to check copyright is still enforced. With the example of film makers in California in the present day its not so bad, a simple e-mail to the companies registered contact information should clear up any questions, unless of course the contact information is no longer valid. But for older works, before the rise of the digital economy and back when large parts of the industry faced legal sanction and total social ostracisation that becomes much harder. It wasn't uncommon for the people who worked on pornographic material to have used a shell identity as protection.
