MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - How Copyright Makes Books and Music Disappear

SteveEisenberg · 07-10-2013, 07:35 PM

It common to see a copyright notice such as:

Copyright © 2009 by William Shawcross

And this example is available as an eBook:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Queen-Moth.../dp/1400078342

Suppose, I hope far in the future, Mr. Shawcross dies, dividing his estate between a number of children. Then some of them die, dividing the estate between their children. In most cases, the wills are uncontested, but one or two are in dispute.

Publisher? Well, it's Random House, and they will be here for a while.

Given this situation, I have a few questions:

-- What does the publisher, or successor firm, do if they can't reliably identify who to send the royalties to?

-- And what do they do if, before life + 70 is reached, the number of heirs becomes so high that it would cost more to issue them annual payments than the value of the royalty payments themselves?

-- At what point does it become legally challenging for Amazon, Kobo, and successor firms to keep selling the eBook?

07-10-2013, 07:35 PM	#46
SteveEisenberg Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,377 Karma: 42994616 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: near Philadelphia USA Device: Kindle Kids Edition, Fire HD 10 (11th generation)	It common to see a copyright notice such as: Copyright © 2009 by William Shawcross And this example is available as an eBook: http://www.amazon.com/The-Queen-Moth.../dp/1400078342 Suppose, I hope far in the future, Mr. Shawcross dies, dividing his estate between a number of children. Then some of them die, dividing the estate between their children. In most cases, the wills are uncontested, but one or two are in dispute. Publisher? Well, it's Random House, and they will be here for a while. Given this situation, I have a few questions: -- What does the publisher, or successor firm, do if they can't reliably identify who to send the royalties to? -- And what do they do if, before life + 70 is reached, the number of heirs becomes so high that it would cost more to issue them annual payments than the value of the royalty payments themselves? -- At what point does it become legally challenging for Amazon, Kobo, and successor firms to keep selling the eBook?