Re: Online and out of print

On 19.02.97, Chris Zielinski <chris.zielinski[_at_]alcs.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Cyberlaw question: when is anything that is placed online, on the
> Internet to be precise, out of print?
>
> A few key variants to the question:
>
> 1) Out of print in an original paper version, available online
> as full text
> 2) Out of print in one country in an original paper version, in
> print in another country, available online as full text
> 3) Published originally online (in an electronic journal or
> e-zine, say)
>
> Note that for most texts in most countries under most contracts, the
> copyright reverts to the author when a text is out of print, so this
> has a very real significance for creators wishing to manage their own
> out-of-print work.

As you indicate, the question will be relevant to the interpretation of a publishing contract, and will have to be answered in that context rather than a sort of "definition" of the term. If the clause occurres in a contract for net publishing, it may not be quite successfully drafted. If it is a conventional publishing contract, the exploitation in the net will probably be irrelevant with respect to the clause, which also often makes an operational definition stating how many copies have to be left (a treshold) before the author may invoke the clause, and have the rights revert to him or herself.

Jon Bing

Institutt for rettsinformatikk
Det juridiske fakultet
Universitetet i Oslo

Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law Faculty of Law - University of Oslo

PO Box 6702 St Olavs Plass
N-0376 OSLO - Norway

Phone: +47-22-850101, fax: +47-22-850102 Private fax: +47-22-493190
<jon.bing[_at_]jus.uio.no> Received on Fri Feb 21 1997 - 09:44:49 GMT