Re: public domain question

On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Eric Eldred <eldred[_at_]eldritchpress.org> wrote:
>
> What happens to copyright when the underlying work is destroyed?
> (News reports suggest that the most expensive painting ever sold
> at auction has been destroyed for estate tax purposes -- what
> happens now to the copyright? -- does it linger on in some ghostly
> state for some reason?) ...

The copyright still exists and the copyrighted work, even though there exists no copy of it, still exists in the air, so to speak.

Say, Joe writes a song and because it is fixed in a paper, he owns copyright in the song. He sings it to an audience of 100 people. One of them has a good memory and memorizes his song. Few days later, he is cleaning up his room and he accidentally throws the paper (that has his song) in the fireplace. He gasps and cries for a while because he could not remember his song (because he has poor memory).

Few years later, Jon, who memorized Joe's song, still remembers the song, types it on his PC, and sends it to his friends.

Jon infringes Joe's copyright.

In theory, at least. (I do not see how Joe can prove that he owns copyright in the song unless he can find 99 people who were in the audience as witnesses and of course, unless Jon is willing to tell the truth, which is very unlikely.)

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>

Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 6,850 Received on Thu Mar 30 2000 - 18:39:11 GMT