Fw:Re: Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster and Sonny Bono

Lance Purple wrote:
>> Of all the works copyrighted in, say, 1925, less [sic] than 5% are
>> still in print today. Most of the others were never reprinted after
>> the first edition...

Dodi Schultz wrote:
> I'm curious: What's the source of this statement? Where might > one obtain such statistics?

Lance Purple wrote:
>> In Mark Lemley's amicus brief, he counts 10,027 works
>> registered for U.S. Copyright in 1930. Only 147 were still
>> in print as of 2001.

Actually, the snippet at the web page counts 10,027 BOOKS (not works)published (and 174, not 147) in print today. What percentage of the copyrighted content of 1930s newspapers is in print today? What percentage of the magazines? Probably very close to  zero. I suspect, also, that the number of words in those 10,027 books is dwarfed by the words (and pictures) in the magazines and newspapers. And newspaper and magazine content is far less likely to have a second printing.

Keith Handley
kehandley[_at_]netzero.net Received on Wed Oct 09 2002 - 16:26:42 GMT