Quote:
Originally Posted by Strolls
I see no need that the grandchildren of Tolkien, Beatrix Potter and A. A. Milne should be continuing to live rich of their legacy.
A copyright of 10 years, 25 years at most, would be far more suitable. J. K. Rowling would not be in the poor house if the copyrights on her books were to lapse today.
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I don't particularly mind if the grandchildren of Tolkein and Milne continue to make money on their works. (Don't know how much I approve of it, but I don't mind.)
I mind that, in order for those to continue making money for their heirs, huge collections of pulp detective novels, science fiction stories, westerns, and romances, by authors who have died or vanished under pseudonyms or wrote "for hire" before there was a legal term for "work for hire," are unavailable. I mind that most of the comic books for the last 75 years are locked away from public view, despite nobody's intention to ever reprint them. I mind that I can't buy a garage-sale box of WWII boys' adventure books & scan and share them.
The problem isn't with the mainstream, still-in-print, still-selling materials. If there's an active market, maybe copyright should be extended. (Heh. For a price. Copyright for 25 years for free, and $1000 to register to extend it for a 10-year block. Corporations would have to think about which of their works to keep locked away.)
The problem is with all the works with no notable commercial value, just nostalgia or documentary value, which are being locked up with all the stuff that lets people make money.