Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
In many cases the Copyright (or performance rights) is Inherited by a family or group who can't agree (on how much greed  to do) .
In this case, IIRC Eddings wife was an uncredited co-author. Both are now gone. Who knows what the estate is doing to the rights?
Why are Copyrights not like Patents? They are BOTH creative work protections. Why are Actors just paid by contract terms, but the FILM is almost forever paying the studio Copyright fees. The Actors PERFOMANCE is as creative as all the rest, which is why MoCap is needed even in live action types. |
If I recall correctly, Eddings had no children but did have some siblings. I would guess they have the copyright now.
The basic answer for is a combination of publishing contracts, lack of clarity on who actually holds the copyrights and an unrealistic expectation of how much the rights to publish the books are worth. Some people expect to get paid lots of money upfront. They don't want to simply put it out there and get a small royalty check every 3 months. This is especially true of someone who isn't in the field and doesn't know how it normally works. Books that were written 30+ years ago generally aren't worth all that much money unless actively marketed, especially after the author dies and is no longer putting out new books. There are exceptions, but not many.