Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

On 29, July 1998, Robert Cumbow <cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> wrote:
>
> Mike Bradley <michael[_at_]vision-soft.com> wrote:
> >
> > Bob Cumbow <cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > If a copyright owner decides to take a previously-published work
> > > out of print, he does not lose his copyright, but he does lose
> > > the right to obtain damages for infringement of the work during
> > > the time it is unavailable.
> >
> > Oh, come on. This and the even worse loss-of-copyright proposal
> > would be intolerable to creators. An author cannot force a
> > publisher to keep his/her book in print. You're saying that while
> > an author is looking for a new market for a book, anyone can copy
> > and publish any part of it freely? And this as a spur to creativity?
>
> Mr Bradley makes a good point. We have been looking at this
> hypothetical narrowly, as a means of giving the public access to a
> work even when a publisher has denied such access by allowing the
> book to go out of print. But we have forgotten the author, who
> certainly shouldn't lose royalties merely because his publisher
> shelved his book. What, I wonder, might be a fairer system, to allow
> the person who needs a copy of an out-of-print work to obtain one
> without depriving the author of his royalty?

This precisely the problem. If I go to the bookstore to order a book, and the order comes back unfilled, and "out of print", and a prolonged book search comes up with nothing, what are my 'legal' options? By the way, anybody out there have a copy of Peter Newmark's Approaches to Translation, 1981? I cannot find a copy, and I need it!

Michael A Scarpitti
Assistant Editor
Materials Evaluation
1711 Arlingate Lane
PO Box 28518
Columbus, Ohio 43228-0518
800 222-2768 Ext 207
614 274-6003 Ext 207
Fax 614 274-6899
<mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org> Received on Thu Jul 30 1998 - 14:22:19 GMT