This is very interesting, Tony, and I thank you for providing the information. I'm curious -- how do you happen to know all this? Is your line of work related or is it curiousity? Or annoyance at the system (smile)? Cindy - Tony Baechler <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi. Umm no, not really. The author or estate > doesn't earn royalties on > out of print books. I would guess that 80-90% of > books go out of print, > especially after 95-120 years from the author's > death. This is exactly > what I'm so upset about. Publishers have convinced > you and most other > people that yes, we really do need longer and longer > copyright terms, even > though the author doesn't get a penny for his work. > This is even more true > if the publisher holds the rights. At least if the > author holds the rights > as most do nowadays, they can pass it on to their > estate and the estate can > get it reprinted by a different publisher. However, > in most cases none of > that happens. > > It used to be that the standard copyright term in > the US was 14 years and > could be extended another 14 years. In the 1970's, > both were changed to 28 > years. Now, it is a flat life plus 70 years for > living authors and 95-120 > years for dead authors and books published after > 1922 in which the > copyright was not renewed. Actually, from 1949 on, > the copyright doesn't > need to be renewed because I think that falls into > the 120 year > category. From 1923-1949, it gets complicated > because if the copyright was > not renewed in that time, it is public domain but if > it was I think it gets > 95 years protection. Yes, this is very confusing > and convoluted. You can > go to the PG site and read the FAQs to get more of > an overview on this, or > there are more detailed books etc. Just for > completeness, all books > published in 1922 or earlier are now public domain, > so no one has any > rights or ownership of them. I can do anything I > want with a public domain > work. Note that the above only applies to written > works. It does not > apply to sound recordings. Also it is not the same > as trademarks. You > can't copyright a word but you can trademark it. > Trademarks fall under a > completely different set of laws. For those who > don't know, the PG site is: > > http://www.gutenberg.org/ > > > > At 08:21 PM 3/14/2005 -0800, you wrote: > >Yes, I agree that it doesn't seem right to have > >different lengths of time before books et al are in > >public domain. But longer periods undercopyright > >protect the author and the author's estate. I think > >the reason for longer ones is because, at least in > the > >U.S., the copyrights can be extended once or twice > -- > >I don't remember (and didn't check -- sorry, Tony, > >I'll leave that for you, smile). This allows the > >author and his/her estate to continue to earn money > >from his/her creative work. > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com