Re: Copyright Extension Bill Passes Congress

On 20 Oct 1998, Stephen Fishman <sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> That's because the vast majority of copyright-protected works are
> useless garbage. Those very few that have enduring value are
> heard from again when they enter the public domain. Indeed, they
> are heard more, not less, than when they were copyrighted.
>
> Here's one example: F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of
> Paradise, entered the public domain in 1996. In that year, nine new
> editions of the work were published by nine different publishers.
> So readers had many more choices than when the work was owned by
> Scribner's.

Yes, but except for copyright and the efforts of publishers, it's likely that no one would have heard of Fitzgerald and there would be no market to attract reprinters.

Poor sales performance by the reprints may discourage them from further public domain projects.

I speak as a former reprint editor.

Albert Henderson, Editor, PUBLISHING RESEARCH QUARTERLY <70244.1532[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Thu Oct 22 1998 - 22:45:22 GMT