Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
You're missing an important factor: authors usually can only get published via *exclusive* deals with publishers, at least for a given country. If the copyright is allowed to go into public domain, the publisher loses his monopoly on distribution. Thus, regardless of the value of the bibliography, publishers would like to lock up that copyright as long as possible. A writer who is about to expire is in a good position to bargain greater royalties (for his old family) from a publisher by agreeing to marry a young bride before it's too late.
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But only if the creator's copyrights are still producing returns ("the endowment"). If they are "out of print" (or it's audio/video equivalent) and have been for years, (which is the vast majority of copyright by that time, then why would the publisher do anything that cost him/her time and/or money? Athrur C. Clarke, for example, yes, but Joseph Greene? Not likely...