Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
Contract law is a two way street; there generally has to be a quid pro quo for it to be valid. If party A was suppose to deliver X, and failed, then party B will no longer be obligated to deliver Y.
In the specific example, in a publishing contract, the publisher agrees to pay the author (or the author's estate) for the exclusive use of a specific set of rights to the work (which could be all rights). If copyright expires at death, the author's estate is not able to grant those rights, therefore the contract immediately becomes void.
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Bill
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As a fun aside, I'd just like to point out that in contract law, the failure of one party to perform doesn't necessarily relieve the other from its obligation to perform. There's exceptions (fundamental breach or frustration as an e.g., if you're into that sort of thing). So in your example, the publisher may still have to pay whomever it agreed to pay, even though it can't get what it bargained for; the publisher's remedy would be to sue for damages in breach of contract.
This doesn't have anything to do with your argument, but I did spend 10 minutes thinking about your example (and almost reached for a contracts textbook), so felt compelled to post.