Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
More to the point, I really do not see why just being the first person to convert these works into a new format suddenly ought to give you the rights to use it as you please. That isn't the case with music recordings, for example, which was able to pull tremendous amounts of recordings back into circulation -- while obeying existing copyright laws. I don't see why books should be any different or why Google (or anyone else) should receive some sort of special dispensation.
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Maybe. But I remember explanations in the 90s when TV shows started to be re-released on DVD - there were (and are?) shows which could NOT be released, because they couldn't contact and/or negotiate with the music rights-holders, for music that accompanied the show as "background sound". Their existing contracts covered new syndication, so the show could always be broadcast again, but release in a new format hadn't been covered.
Now, I never really *liked* "WKRP in Cincinnati", but the show played so much then-current music that I've never seen in on DVD. Current shows already account for this in their current contracts, just as current books *probably* account for electronic rights.
On another point, how would this settlement handle something like the Wild Cards series of sf anthologies? Multiple authors, many still writing but others not. I recently read one of the principle editors say that they couldn't even re-issue it in paper due to conflicting rights for the individual stories.