Re: Contracts and copyright dur

From: David Pierce <sunrise[_at_]dc.infi.net>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 20:20:13 -0400 (EDT)

> On 4/15/96 Kenneth Crews said:
> >
> > But when an owner uses monopoly power to secure license commitments
> > beyond the term of years that Congress chose to protect copyrights,
> > then the owner is reaching beyond the scope of rights Congress
> > intended to allow.

On 17 Apr 1996, Martha Luehrmann wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> In patent practice, licensing a patent for a term beyond the life of
> the patent can be grounds for a charge of patent misuse, and can lead
> to the complete loss of the patent.
>
> [snip]
>
> I would imagine that the courts would take a dim view of a similar
> misuse of copyright. After all, the bargain with society is clear.
> The holders of patent or copyright get a TEMPORARY monopoly and in
> exchange the public receives the benefit of full disclosure and
> dissemination.
>
> [snip]

In a conversation several years ago with Zane Grey's son, Loren, he told me that the estate's publishing contracts require the publisher to pay royalties on _all_ of Grey's books, including the public domain ones. According to Loren, the author's wife knowingly neglected to renew several early copyrights, believing that they were not Grey's best, and had little value.

Since all of Grey's books are published in paperback in uniform editions (with similar covers and probably the same prices), Loren felt it was quite reasonable to receive royalties on all of the titles.

Zane Grey is probably not alone. Author Willa Cather sold her novel "A Lost Lady" to the movies for a 1925 film version. She so disliked the result that, according to her biographer, "Cather expressly forbade her publishers to sell movie rights to any of her other books or stories and she saw to it that the prohibition was written into her will." The competing 1992 film versions of Cather's "O Pioneers!" from American Playhouse and the Hallmark Hall of Fame (with Jessica Lange) were possible due to expiration of the copyright in the 1913 novel.

While checking this out two years ago, I visited Crown Books. Vintage Books, the authorized publisher of Willa Cather's works, offers a paperback edition of "O Pioneers!" for $9.00, the identical price as her 1923 copyrighted novel "A Lost Lady." However, other paperback editions of "O Pioneers!" were available. The Tor edition is $3.99, the Signet Classics edition is $4.50, while the Penguin edition is $7.99. The entire text of "O Pioneers!" is also available at no cost over the Internet.

David Pierce

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|          David Pierce                                           |
|          P.O. Box 2748        fax: 301-604-6827                 |
|          Laurel, MD 20709     sunrise[_at_]dc.infi.net               |

+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+ Received on Fri Apr 19 1996 - 00:21:03 GMT