Quote:
Originally Posted by graycyn
This is something that worries me. There are books that are exceedingly rare. The kind where, if you search hard, you might find only one or two copies available for sale if you are lucky. And some books, ZERO.
Every year, rare books get destroyed by assorted natural disasters. Every year, rare books get tossed in the trash by someone disposing of an estate who needs to get it done soonest and thinks a ratty old book can't be worth anything.
How many copies will be left by the time they are in the public domain? Who will remember these books and make an effort to find and publish them then?
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Back when copyright was limited to 28 years, plus a renewal of 28 years, there was little chance of significant works being lost. With copyright extended to life plus 90, there is a great deal of chance that many works will be lost in time.
Let me give an example. I have a paperback, A World Called Camelot by Arthur H Landis, published in 1976 from an earlier serial Let There be Magick under the name of James B Keaveny. Landis died in 1986. He does not appear to have any near kin. The book was last printed in 1982 by DAW. Odds are pretty good that by the time the book goes into public domain, both the book and the author will be forgotten. It can be found on scribd and I suspect it's probably on some of the pirate sites, and I believe that it's one of the books that google scanned (I don't see it there, but his other books are there).
Of course, the fact that a work by a dead, relatively obscure author is not available probably means little to the world as a whole. It's not like the cure for cancer is buried in the book. But my point is that it's needless. It's a situation where no one wins and everyone loses.