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Originally Posted by HansTWN
So it is up to those that do care to write to the copyright holders and offer to do the work for them, to turn those books into e-books. The only issue will be that the copyright holders see no market at a reasonable price.
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No, first the issue is finding the copyright owner. For an author who died in 1940 in the US, the living heirs, if any can be identified, may be two or more generations removed--if the rights weren't assigned to a publisher that went bankrupt in 1965.
It doesn't help that a lot of books don't give clear and accurate copyright information--they don't mention whether the text itself is in the public domain, or covered by an earlier copyright and only the formatting and introduction are covered by the new date.
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(as you can see in this forum most people expect such titles to sell for $3-4. If there is no cost involved they might well reconsider.
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I don't "expect" titles to sell for $3-4. I just don't buy many that cost more than that; those books are obviously seeking a different market demographic. I don't usually buy shoes that cost more than $40, either, although I don't begrudge the existence of more expensive types.
"What should have entered the public domain this year" is a very relevant topic--it's showing what the copyright act of 78 took away from the American people. Those books (and movies and songs) should belong to all of us now; that was the reason for granting the monopoly of copyright in the first place--that was our supposed benefit for allowing the exclusivity.