Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
If that were to be the case, there would be no incentive whatsoever for any publisher to issue their back-catalogue as ebooks.
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I'm not so sure that is the case. One see this with PD books. You can get the book at PG, but publishers still come out with for sale versions.
I would suggest that this is where the idea of a safe harbor for orphaned works comes into play. If I were Emperor for a day, I would set up a system where copyright holders could register themselves as the copyright holder, and if a work has been out of print for a set number of years and no copyright holder is listed, then you are protected if you wish to scan the book and make it available for free for others. Of course, such works would have to be removed if a copyrights holder comes forward.