5 ms·
The problem is finding the rightsholder and getting them to agree to a new contract, on a budget of less than a dollar. If you find a scalable solution to that
by patio11 13y ago
The problem is finding the rightsholder and getting them to agree to a new contract, on a budget of less than a dollar. If you find a scalable solution to that, great. Google's solution was to just abrogate all the copyrights and see what happened... and what happened was a lawsuit, reminding Google that just because it would be inconvenient for them to negotiate contracts at scale did not mean they could accomplish a contract of adhesion by public notice.
- mechanical_fish 13y agoIt's even worse than the phrase "finding the rightsholder" would suggest. Most authors pass away without clearly designating a single literary heir, so the rights often get split among heirs, which is bad enough when it happens once, but by the time grandchildren start inheriting fractional rights, getting the legal ducks in a row is economically impossible. Or maybe the rights end up in the hands of someone who is happy to see the work lost forever. Authors themselves are sometimes happy to help their old work get lost forever.