Quote:
Originally Posted by Giggleton
Yes, but I meant more along the lines of a book being published, for say one small printing. The book is well-regarded, wins awards etc.. One year later, the copyright holder decides to not copy their book anymore and goes to hide in a cave.
|
Yes, that is an "orphaned work": the situation where the rights-holder of a book decides not to publish it any longer. There are huge numbers of books in that state.
Quote:
|
I'm trying to say here that if the book is of a benefit to the public, and the rights holder does not want the book to be copied, even though it has been available to the public in the past, what do we do? Wait for the book's copyright to expire? What if no one has a suitable copy of the book to copy from at that point in time?
|
Currently, your legal option are to find an existing copy of the book (eg in a library - it will be in a "copyright library" such as the British Library, or the Library of Congress, which automatically receive a copy of every published work) or wait for the copyright period to expire. The point of copyright libraries, by the way, is precisely to ensure that the situation you describe doesn't occur: ie, that all copies of a book never disappear.