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Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
Actually, I believe it was 1976 when the US joined the Berne Convention. There was a big noise made about Lord of the Rings being pirated by ---- company due to the lack of a US copyright filing. (Name deliberately left off.)
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The publisher took technically legal (if dubiously ethical) advantage of an error on the part of of Tolkien's British publisher, Unwin and Allen. They subsequently made a payment to Tolkien of monies earned on that edition to attempt to defuse the adverse publicity stemming from the act.
They guy running the place got his start in the old pulp days when "payment upon threat of lawsuit" was a regrettably common experience for an author, and "sharp" practices were the norm, so this behavior wasn't a terrible surprise.
(And from stories I recall hearing back then, Unwin and Allen were diddling Tolkien as well, taking advantage of his ignorance of the publishing business. That was regrettably common, too. I knew one woman who was an editor back when who got a call from an author inquiring about royalties. She said "Read your contract!", and got chewed by her boss for saying that much. "Keep them ignorant, and maybe we won't have to
pay them...")
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There was a number of (Very rare!) mimeograph books issued in the US by British authors to enforce their copyrights....
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The only one I can think of was a copy of "Dr. Mirabilis", issued in mimeo by the late James Blish, to preserve his copyright after an error by Little, Brown. IIRC, Blish was residing in Britain at the time, but was not British.
Which others are you aware of?
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Dennis