How corporations and the public benefit from works in the public domain

For the past week or so, I’ve been writing about the frequent use of popular stories and characters in the public domain by entertainment companies.
What follows is an index of those posts, which address how the public and media companies benefit from works off copyright and in the public domain.

Hollywood benefits from works off copyright and in the public domain (Oct. 12, 2010)

‘The Wizard of Oz’ by Annie Leibovitz (Oct. 13, 2010)

Gulliver’s Travels, Three Musketeers and other stories thrive thanks to public domain (Oct. 14, 2010)

Walt Disney built an empire on public domain works (Oct. 15, 2010)

Annie Leibovitz fairy tale photos for Disney (Oct. 16, 2010)

Book publishers also are mining the public domain (Oct. 18, 2010)

Even porn studios like public domain stories (Oct. 19, 2010)

I also wrote about copyrights and the public domain in a series of blog posts late last year.

The problem with modern copyright law (Sept. 2, 2009)

Horny artists like to sex up Disney, fairy tale art (Dec. 20, 2009)

How artists and the public benefit from creative works in the public domain (Dec. 24, 2009)

Public domain works of literature given new life in different media (Dec. 27, 2009)

Movies from public domain works like 'Sherlock Holmes' have built-in audiences (Dec. 28, 2009)

Photo: Reimagining of Cinderella tale by Platinum Image Conception Studio of Rio de Janiero.