01-22-2010, 01:00 PM | #1 |
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Fascinating NYT article on Sherlock Holmes copyright
For those interested in copyright issues (who of us are not???) here's a great article from the New York Times about the muddled history of the copyrights on "Sherlock Holmes":
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/books/19sherlock.html Guaranteed to leave you angry at the "Copyright Lords" once again.... Where's balance? Where's reason? Where's Waldo? (Oops, got carried away...) |
01-22-2010, 01:08 PM | #2 |
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Ooooo, thanks for this. Copyright is always such a muddle at times, I'm definitly going to read this.
Cheers! |
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01-22-2010, 03:13 PM | #3 | |
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01-22-2010, 05:27 PM | #4 |
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01-22-2010, 05:29 PM | #5 |
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01-22-2010, 05:33 PM | #6 |
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01-22-2010, 05:34 PM | #7 |
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Reads like a case for Holmes & Watson themselves. Copyright has always done my head in and this is no different
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01-22-2010, 05:38 PM | #8 | |
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Where's the truth? The stories, up to 1923 are P.D. in the US. The entire canon is P.D. in Life + 70 and Life + 50. Trademarking of the Characters have been denied. Just what does the guy claim to own? |
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01-22-2010, 05:41 PM | #9 |
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01-22-2010, 07:42 PM | #10 | |
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And I salute your raised (hand). Exactly my sentiments towards extending copyright periods. (I do support copyrights, just so you know-I just don't support infinite copyrights. I'm open to discussion of what the period should be, but anything longer than 50 years just doesn't seem reasonable to me.) |
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01-22-2010, 07:49 PM | #11 |
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While I'm all for authors receiving their just rewards, it angers me immensely to see descendants skimming off royalties without performing an ounce of work, these people need to get off their asses and earn their living like the rest of us.
I, too, am confused as to why copyright should even be an issue with Sherlock Holmes, the article certainly did nothing to explain what rights these greedy bums are fighting over. |
01-22-2010, 07:59 PM | #12 | |
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Basically, isn't a person entitled to leave something to his/her heirs? You can argue that the author can leave whatever's earned during his/her lifetime, but what if that lifetime is cut short? Check out when the author of Confederacy of Dunces died vs when his book was published. (Possible a bad example as, IIRC, the author's heir was his mother. But the principle is still valid. An author can die before realizing anything from his work.) that's why I prefer a set time. Or maybe a combination, but then it should be something like '50 years or life of author, whichever is longer'. |
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01-22-2010, 08:17 PM | #13 |
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Not bad for an Inspector Dupin rip-off, huh?
Just kidding, I love Holmes even if Doyle borrowed from Poe a little... But that is a pretty ridiculous tale of copyright maneuvering. |
01-22-2010, 08:49 PM | #14 |
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Here is an idea, if you are a descendant and you want to profit off your famous dead relative, write a book about them and their work. Then *your* book will be under copyright and you can profit from it all you want.
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01-22-2010, 10:45 PM | #15 |
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You don't even have to write it, just get some ghost-writer to do the leg work and slap your name on there, doesn't even matter if you're a grand-daughter. *cough* Stoker *cough* Barring all that you could just be the son of one of the world's biggest selling authors, use a well established and known by everybody in the business pseudonym, get published and live the rest of your life thinking that you did it all through merit and it had nothing, nothing at all to do with your famous writer father. *cough*Hill *cough* Third option is to have an influential Scientologist father who....well, you can figure out who I'm talking about with that one easily enough.
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