Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
I've already said why I don't think it should depend on publication. I like the way it is now in that aspect.
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How copyright applies to unpublished works is certainly something that would need to be set out in copyright law.
The copyright status of unpublished works, when the author is alive and after the author is dead, needs to be set in such a way that publication is encouraged but not overly enforced. That is, there should be some financial incentive (i.e. some period of copyright) given to the first publication of unpublished works, but not so much that it encourages hoarding, or otherwise discourages publication.
Here's my ideal:
1. Copyright is automatic, and applies as soon as a work is in a fixed form.
2. For unpublished works, if published within the authors lifetime, copyright then continues for 50 years from date of publication.
3. For unpublished works, published posthumously, copyright continues for 10 years from publication, or for 50 year after the author's death, which ever is longer. If published within 50 years of the author's death, the copyright belongs to the estate, which is the only body able to publish the work. If published more than 50 years after the author's death, the copyright belongs to the person publishing the work.
This has the following advantages
1. Copyright is automatic, as at present.
2. During their lifetime, the author has full control over publication, and there's no penalty for not publishing - the author gets the same copyright length from publication whenever the work is published.
3. For posthumous works, there's an incentive to publish the work, no matter when it's published. The sooner it's published after the author's death, the longer the copyright period, encouraging publication. But limiting the estate's copyright ownership to 50 years after the author's death means that unpublished works (e.g. old diaries) discovered by people unrelated to the author can be legally published.
Although there is a small element of the author's lifetime involved, it's minor. Every published work is in the public domain no more than 50 years after publication. Some posthumously published works will be in the public domain sooner than that.