“Sherlock Holmes” Is Now Officially Off Copyright and Open for Business: What amazing Holmes fan fiction will you create?; Smithsonian, 6/19/14

Colin Schultz, Smithsonian; “Sherlock Holmes” Is Now Officially Off Copyright and Open for Business: What amazing Holmes fan fiction will you create? :

"Part of the motivation for the Judge's decision, says Molly Van Houweling for the Authors Alliance, was a consideration of what the larger ramifications of extending the copyright on Holmes would have on art in general. Holmes' lasting popularity is a rarity among fictional characters—most fall out of favor within years, not decades. Creating a longer term on copyright for characters would reduce the number of works flowing into the public domain. This, in turn, would make it more difficult or more expensive for future artists to work, since a great deal of art draws on earlier works...

Posner's opinion has much to commend, but one area it does not delve into is how the character of Sherlock Holmes—as we know him—is the construct of many authors, artists, and even film-makers. As Authors Alliance co-founder Molly Van Houweling points out, the phrase "elementary, my dear Watson," never appears in any of Doyle's works."