Bit of a dodgy situation...
Nov. 20th, 2013 04:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reynardoThis is about books published in the US.
Imagine, if you would, a book written by someone who was alive in the last 50 years, so therefore the book is still in copyright (as I understand US copyright law, that is. If I'm wrong, let me know).
The author wanted to share the joy with four other people, so she willed the ownership of the book to those four. Alas, two of them have since disappeared, and so no-one knows quite who owns the rights to the book, or who can give permission for reprints. The book itself has been out of print for years.
Now imagine a fast-acting company have got their hands on an old copy of the book and have decided to instead photocopy every single page, print off those copies, bind them and sell them as a new copy of the book. No money goes to the estate of the author.
The "reprint" is very spartan - the cover is minimalist to the point that I find it hard to believe the company even pays for a designer. It also has, on several pages, the marks that show that the original book came from an old library copy - it even has the asset number.
Assuming that the publishers got hold of the book legally (eg bought it at a sale from the Library), what is the legal situation in regards to just photocopying and printing off a new copy of the book?
Imagine, if you would, a book written by someone who was alive in the last 50 years, so therefore the book is still in copyright (as I understand US copyright law, that is. If I'm wrong, let me know).
The author wanted to share the joy with four other people, so she willed the ownership of the book to those four. Alas, two of them have since disappeared, and so no-one knows quite who owns the rights to the book, or who can give permission for reprints. The book itself has been out of print for years.
Now imagine a fast-acting company have got their hands on an old copy of the book and have decided to instead photocopy every single page, print off those copies, bind them and sell them as a new copy of the book. No money goes to the estate of the author.
The "reprint" is very spartan - the cover is minimalist to the point that I find it hard to believe the company even pays for a designer. It also has, on several pages, the marks that show that the original book came from an old library copy - it even has the asset number.
Assuming that the publishers got hold of the book legally (eg bought it at a sale from the Library), what is the legal situation in regards to just photocopying and printing off a new copy of the book?
no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 06:41 pm (UTC)Photocopying a book and selling it is pretty much the definition of breaching someone's copyright. How they acquired the text, whether or not it's still in print, or whether it's possible to find the copyright owners to ask permission is completely immaterial. If they genuinely thought it was out of copyright, then that can affect the damages, but that will be hard to prove if they photocopied a book with the copyright date printed in it.
The basic question, though, is always whether or not any of the copyright holders feel it's worth their time to hire a lawyer and go through the hassle of winning the court case and enforcing the judgement. I guess a lawyers would be able to give some estimate of the damages they might receive, but that still doesn't help if the reprint is being done by people without much in the way of assets.