start of copyright period

I thought I understood the bare basics of copyright, but now I'm confused.

An author dies, leaving extensive unpublished material.

Fifty years later, the material is finally published, copyrighted by the person who edited the collection. This person has permission to publish the material, but has not contracted to share proceeds of the book with the actual owner of the manuscripts, which might be either an heir of the author or an archives to which the manuscripts were given.

When does copyright begin and end?

pat sloane
<patsloane[_at_]aol.com> Received on Tue Apr 04 2000 - 07:23:12 GMT