Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I don't follow your logic there. How would a shorter copyright term affect the availability of a new book? A new book will always be protected by copyright, unless its author chooses to release it into the public domain.
For a new book, copyright protection will increase its chance of being published. No publisher is going to spend money publishing a book that anyone can simply take and freely copy.
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I think you're confusing two separate issues, and I apologize if I was unclear.
Longer copyright terms affect the availability of
older books that are no longer being published (see the Atlantic article on this). Publishers will publish books that are in the public domain, as happens today, just like companies will release movies on DVD that are available in the public domain. These works can also become available on-line or otherwise without a publisher, making them more widely available.
I'm guessing that you would agree that copyright can bury older works where the copyrightholder isn't interested in publishing. Feel free to correct me on that.
Books that are not in the public domain are not available to be republisehd or reused. In 50 years, I still won't be able to create a story set at Hogwarts without permission, so in that sense copyright affects what I can create. In my post above, I indicated that I thought reusing worlds and expressions was a good thing, but my main point was that there are down sides to copyright in that it makes older books less available.