RE: copyright renewal

In a nutshell, you need to consult a lawyer. Your issues are really too complicated to address on this type of board. I know that many lawyers across the country would be happy to at least meet with you based on the subject of your question alone.

As a general matter, however, for the most part the issue of copyright renewal is now a dead issue in that works that were protected by copyright at the time of the 1976 Act (which came into effect in 1978) have the time of their protection controlled by statute regardless of renewal. The issue would be whether there is a purported assignment on the part of one party to another. You really need to sit down with someone face to face to discuss all the intricacies of the issue to determine what legal rights you may have.

An interesting resource to determine the likely copyright status of a work is at
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
This link has been posted on this list before. It's a table of when works pass into the public domain based on when they were written and/or published. It's interesting, but it is not the complete story.

A good resource for attorneys in your area in www.martindale.com, which allows users to search by location and specialty. Look for people who are AV rated. Not being rated isn't a bad thing, but being rated is a good thing. I would look for someone (or a firm) with both copyright and estate experience.

I hope this helps.

-David Hale

On Wednesday, December 26, 2001 7:31 AM, Kinteh7[_at_]aol.com [SMTP:Kinteh7[_at_]aol.com] wrote:
> 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.
>
> 1. 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.
>
> 2. 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
> << File: ATT00002.htm >>
Received on Fri Dec 28 2001 - 14:34:16 GMT