On 18 May 2007 at 01:34:33 -0700, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
wrote:
If there is a documented assignment of rights this
should pose no
problems. In the long term, however, we need to be more open and less
bureaucratic when rights are claimed by inheritance. Books that were
written long ago are often forgotten when wills are written, or if there
is an intestacy. Things can get worse when we are two of three
generations removed, or there are large families.
...which is a good reason why it was a bad idea to extend copyright
terms to the degree they are now (70 years after the death of the
author in the U.S. and many other countries, still only 50 years
after the death of the author in some countries; no renewal
requirement); it causes a very large number of works to fall into
copyright limbo where they're still not public domain, but the actual
ownership is difficult to determine or prove. The old system of flat-
length terms (28 years renewable for another 28) were much better for
letting "orphan works" become public domain before it's been so long
that all copies of the work are crumbled to dust anyway.
--
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