Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's actually a lot easier now (everywhere except the US, that is). All you need to know to determine whether or not a work is in copyright or not is the date of the author's death. You don't have to search copyright registers, worry about renewals, or anything else of that nature.
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Doesn't work on obscure authors, or authors with common names, or pseudonyms. How does one determine if the Bruce Elliot who was the author of "Magic as a Hobby" in 1958 is alive today?
Tying copyright to the author's life requires that people track down personal information about the author which may not be available. What if Bruce Elliot was actually Brenda Elliot, but the publishers were convinced that a magic-trick books with a female author's name wouldn't sell?
What if the book was a reprint of something originally published in 1937, and Mr Elliot died in 1940? How far, and in what countries, should one be required to check for the author's biography?
Life+whatever copyright spans are mostly useful to keep materials from being usable by the public for over a century. They don't bring more money to the author--the vast majority of books are still out of print within a few years, and the extended copyright means nobody can easily pick up on the old ones, republish them, and give the author a popularity surge for their newer works.