Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Under the current system, they first have to determine if the author is alive or dead. If he is dead, when he died, and then they have to track down whoever inherited the rights to the book. This is often a non-trivial task which is why many books are considered orphan works.
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Bill
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The "life+x" system that every other country in the world (AFAIK) uses does, however, make it enormously easier to determine whether or not a book is in the public domain, because only one piece of information is required: the date of death of the author.