Book People Archive

Re: Re: Redeeming copyright


On Wed, 21 Feb 2001, Joseph Pietro Riolo wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 20 Feb 2001, Rod Hay <rodhay@[redacted]> wrote:
> > There is in the common law, a right to appropriate abandoned property. Could it          
> > not be argued that a book that has been out of print for a certain number of> > years has been abandoned, and therefore available to all comers.
>              
> Just a quick response.  No, the law concerning abandoned property does
> not apply to any copyrighted work.  If you find a book on a sidewalk
> and could not locate the rightful owner of the book, the physical
> things of the book (papers, ink, hard boards or cloth, strings and
> glue for binding, etc.) are considered as abandoned and you can keep
> the book.  But, the invisible thing inside the book known as "work"
> such as story, essay, poems, play, etc. is never abandoned unless the
> author of the work explicitly dedicates it to the public domain.
> 
> Joseph Pietro Riolo
> <riolo@[redacted]>

Of course, this wasn't even slightly true before the WIPO types
started rewriting copyright laws after the Internet got started.
Before that, if you failed to renew your copyright, it WAS legal
abandonment, and it was legally in the public domain. . . .

Just another way the new copyright laws have rolled out the red
carpet for the copyright holders, who now never have to renew,
even though probably 90% of all copyrights were NEVER renewed.

Just think how the copyright holders would be gnashing their teeth
and rending their garments if this had happened in reverse. . .if they
had to renew every 5 years. . . .

If this trend reverses itself, that's exactly what is going to happen.


Thanks!

So nice to hear from you!


Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
"Ask Dr. Internet"
Executive Director
Internet User ~#100