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I have to imagine copyright has nothing to do with it, since it was never copyrighted. They can hold onto it for another century if they want.
by devindotcom 5y ago
I have to imagine copyright has nothing to do with it, since it was never copyrighted. They can hold onto it for another century if they want.
- fastball 5y agoThat's not how copyright works, no? Copyright exists when you write something, regardless of where you put it.
- ghaff 5y agoNow. Wasn't true then. But others who are probably more knowledgable than I are saying that older non-copyrighted work inherited the modern Berne regime automatically.
- scratcheee 5y agocopyright is automatic and implied, if someone somehow got a legal opportunity to see it, and managed to copy the work (or indeed if the publisher who originally refused it decided to publish it from their records), they would be breaking copyright from the original work regardless. But once the copyright runs out then the publisher can publish it regardless, and a viewer could quietly copy it and publish it, unless someone in the estate made altered copies for anyone viewing it, then the altered copies would have fresh copyright, confusing the whole issue.
- u9rptDjqLl0Pdcz 5y agoI thought this was a change ca. 1980 or so?
- not2b 5y ago1989, when the US finally ratified the Berne Convention. But I think it was retroactive.
- wizzwizz4 5y agoOne hasn't had to file for copyright for a very long time. It's automatic now.