Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's odd that you should mention Poe. As one of the first American authors to attempt to make a living from writing, he really struggled against the pathetic copyright protection that he received at the time, especially the lack of any international copyright protection. He would have been much better served by the current copyright laws than by those that were in force at the time. One might argue that, had he received a decent income from his work, he wouldn't have died at the very early age of 40, and we'd have a lot more from him that we actually do.
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I will concede his hampering through the lack of international copyright, however, at the time, he was SELLING his work in periodicals (e.g. The Raven) There is a difference - the contracts are different. Therefore standard copyright would not have applied anyway. Also, the fact that he was an alcoholic wouldn't have changed.