Quote:
Originally Posted by SomeSteve
In addition, concerned writers could make it a provision of their will, if such provisions are permissible and legally binding, that whoever inherits the copyrights must pledge that neither they nor anyone they grant those rights to will change anything in the writer's works. Anyone not willing to take or abide by the pledge would be disqualified from inheriting. Anyone breaking the pledge would automatically lose the inheritance. The same to apply to all subsequent heirs and anyone they lend, sell, give, bequeath, or otherwise pass the rights on to. (Details about enforcement, additional penalties, a list of substitute heirs, etc., would have to be worked out.)
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I don't think inheritance laws usually work like this. What kind of instance/office would monitor whether the terms were violated for 70 years? And what if noone could be found who was willing to accept the inheritance on those terms? Unless it was a very successful author, it would probably just mean hassle with little or no benefit.
Some alternatives:
- Create an organization -- a trust or similar -- which owns the rights and has statutes for how to administer them. (Like the Tolkien Estate)
- Release the works to public domain. Then anyone can do any changes, but you're also sure that the originals will be available. You could even create some high-quality epubs and place them in Gutenberg, Mobileread etc.