4 ms·

Should everything you've written follow the same suit?

bombcar 5y ago
I think the author's life + 70 years is a good default for anything not explicitly handled elsewhere, as by that point I and everyone involved will be dead (I suppose my grandkids will still be around at that point, but if 70 years of preparation for the publication of my list of Minecraft mods isn't enough, that's their problem). We're not talking personal or private matters here, we're talking something that would have been published if a publisher had said yes at the time. There's obviously a remuneration aspect and the wishes of the author and heirs should be taken into account, but as some point those diminish.
- skybrian 5y ago
  It’s excessive for long-lived authors. As a society we don’t need to do that much for heirs. Birth + 70 years or 10 years after death, whichever is later, would be more reasonable.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    What I'd like to see is some way to handle abandoned works - something like "if this book/game/movie is no longer in print you can obtain some form of archival copy for a fee, paid to the library of congress and transferred to the author/assigns/heirs if possible". Books can wait around for 70 years to be handled/digitized, but lots of other works are being lost (or are being preserved "illegally").
pmoriarty 5y ago
Yes.
- bilbo0s 5y ago
  Wow. Is everyone here aware that this would apply to any source code we write too? If an author writes a private book for his/her SO, that would pass into public domain because the copyright s/he gave to the SO would go away at time of death. I'm assuming that would mean we could not assign rights to source code to our family while we are alive. (Or anyone else come to think of it?) Since those rights go away when we die. This would change a lot. It would change almost everything.
  - kevinh 5y ago
    If they wrote a private book for their spouse, presumably the spouse would have the only copy and would not be required to provide access to it. Copyright wouldn't change that case one way or the other.

I think the author's life + 70 years is a good default for anything not explicitly handled elsewhere, as by that point I and everyone involved will be dead (I suppose my grandkids will still be around at that point, but if 70 years of preparation for the publication of my list of Minecraft mods isn't enough, that's their problem). We're not talking personal or private matters here, we're talking something that would have been published if a publisher had said yes at the time. There's obviously a remuneration aspect and the wishes of the author and heirs should be taken into account, but as some point those diminish.

skybrian 5y ago
It’s excessive for long-lived authors. As a society we don’t need to do that much for heirs. Birth + 70 years or 10 years after death, whichever is later, would be more reasonable.
- bombcar 5y ago
  What I'd like to see is some way to handle abandoned works - something like "if this book/game/movie is no longer in print you can obtain some form of archival copy for a fee, paid to the library of congress and transferred to the author/assigns/heirs if possible". Books can wait around for 70 years to be handled/digitized, but lots of other works are being lost (or are being preserved "illegally").

pmoriarty 5y ago

Yes.

bilbo0s 5y ago
Wow. Is everyone here aware that this would apply to any source code we write too? If an author writes a private book for his/her SO, that would pass into public domain because the copyright s/he gave to the SO would go away at time of death. I'm assuming that would mean we could not assign rights to source code to our family while we are alive. (Or anyone else come to think of it?) Since those rights go away when we die. This would change a lot. It would change almost everything.
- kevinh 5y ago
  If they wrote a private book for their spouse, presumably the spouse would have the only copy and would not be required to provide access to it. Copyright wouldn't change that case one way or the other.