Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Thanks, Paul. So, if I understand that correctly, once a work has been in the public domain once, it can thereafter be freely used without the permission of the copyright holder, but the copyright holder is entitled to ask for a royalty payment once the copyright has been revived. I suppose that is perhaps the "least of possible evils" in such a situation, undesirable though it is.
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A thought has struck me. A royalty is, almost invariably, a percentage of the gross or net price. I wonder if you could win the argument that therefore you're entitled to distribute any of the works that were once out of copyright in the UK, provided you don't change anything, since any percentage of zero is zero.
Hmm... no, apparently not. You have to tell the copyright holder what you're doing, and come to an agreement about royalties. If no agreement about royalties can be reached, you can still go ahead, but then the Copyright Tribunal will set a reasonable royalty or other remuneration.