Lawrence Lessig and the public domain

Interesting ideas about the public domain from Lawrence Lessig...

https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2003_05.shtml#001187

“The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has been
published, the copyright owner must pay a $1 comment maintanence fee. If the copyright
owner pays the fee, then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay the fee,
the work passes into the public domain. Based on historical precedent, we expect 98%
of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain after just 50 years. They could
keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them. But we would get a public domain…”