Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
True.
Here is one of many possible examples of Pulitzer Prize winning books that are surely in the 25 million, and now are expensive and impossible to obtain if you need an eBook (for example, because you can only read large print):
https://www.amazon.com/Grover-Clevel.../dp/B0006AO0FA |
According to the review, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1933. That book should be in the PD, shouldn't it? No, I guess, they renewed the copyright, which would mean 95 years after it was published. Yes, specialty books like that are my pet bugaboo with regards to ebooks. Kind of odd that it's no longer in print. Perhaps it's an orphaned work, or the copyright holder (the author died in 1971) isn't all that interested. That's pretty common once the original author dies. The Tolkien family is very much the exception rather than the rule.
In general, most parties agree that orphaned works are a major issue with regards to copyright law. In the US, there have been several proposals for putting in a mechanism for a good faith search, followed by a method of putting a reasonable share of the revenue into a trust for any copyright holder who may surface in the future. So far, they haven't gone anywhere. I guess there are some significant players who like the status quo and see no reason to compromise. I suspect that this will change when certain political figures in the US retire or the filibuster is finally ended.