Quote:
Originally Posted by phenomshel
Yeah. Google. But then everyone wanted a piece of the pie and now it will be tied up in court forever.
Ok, that was a kneejerk response, and I apologize. But I had high hopes for the Google Books initiative for exactly this reason. I don't think even Google has the money to pay the prices the rights holders would want for everything that's been orphaned by publishers or "forgotten". And whoever said publishers are hoping this FAD will die out is probably more correct than not.
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Actually, the core part of that "everyone wanted a piece" is what's critical.
I have read the editors at Baen saying that they couldn't re-publish Wild Cards stuff, because it was impossible to find all the writers to obtain the rights to their individual stories. Just like "WKRP in Cincinnati", which couldn't get new licenses for all the background music, so it doesn't get released on Dvd. A much harder problem than finding the single (or at least small number) author for a typical novel. Single author collections are much more likely to get the rights cleared for new publication.