Re: Snooze/lose (Was: Academics and coursepacks)

On Wed, 26 Aug 1998, Bernard Katz <bkatz[_at_]uoguelph.ca> wrote:
>
> In fact, it has already been argued persuasively in this regard
> that opening up the potential for publication by bringing works into
> the public domain at a *earlier* stage than life + 50 is much more
> likely to result in more titles becoming available to the public
> than by extending the term of protection still further!

     If you mean it's been argued on this list, all that I recall is a report that when a certain classic US novel (I forget which one) went into the public domain, several publishers issued new editions. But the same report said that the original publisher's sales dropped in half. So all that shows is the profits from publishing the work were spread around, not that the overall number of copies sold increased.

• Mike Bradley National Writers Union <michael[_at_]vision-soft.com>