I am the son of the late author Alex Haley who died in Feb 1992. His estate
is still open after 10 years and we (his children) are struggling to not be
taken advantage of by other parties with respect to some of the copyrights. I
have two questions for you and would appreciate your opinions and suggestions.
- The book The autobiography of Malcolm X copyright was renewed twice in
1993 according to the records at the Library of Congress, once in January
1993 by Betty Shabazz alone and then again in December of the same year in
the Name of Betty Shabazz and My fathers spouse and Children. We were not
notified by the literary agent until June 1994 that this action had been
taken on our behalf and were not informed of the double filing. At anyrate
the literary agent withheld payment of royalties from the children and spouse
of Alex Haley pending the signing of a contract to renew publication rights
in 1976. At that time we were paid the advance on the new contract and back
payments for the funds held from June 1994 to the beginning of the contract
period. I discovered two months ago that the Estate of Alex Haley had been
paid the royalties for the book from the date of Betty Shabazz's renewal in
1993 to June 1994. The amount was (according to the literary agent)
$460,000.00. The estate did not distribute these monies to us. We believe
that we are the proper recipients of this money and that the estate has to
return these funds to us with interest.
- Roots was copyright in 1976 by Alex Haley, however a condensed version of
a portion of the work first appeared in Reader's Digest in 1974 copyright by
Readers Digest Association, Inc. Since the readers digest copyright is due to
expire can the family renew now? What rights do we have if we can renew?
I am asking you because I have asked the estate, the literary agent and
Readers Digest. No one has responded and silence makes me uneasy about the
situation. My sisters and I are poor, we cannot afford to pursue a legal
battle on this, but that does not mean that we would not.
Happy Holidays to all of you
William A. Haley
Kinteh7[_at_]aol.com
Received on Wed Dec 26 2001 - 12:34:15 GMT