>>Us.
>>(Caveat: until someone comes forward to claim legitimate ownership.)
> I wonder if there is legal precedent that might establish a reasonable
> level of due diligence to determine that a copyright asset has indeed
> been abandoned, and a legitimate method by which someone else could
> be considered at least allowed to reproduce it but perhaps not claim
> ownership of it. In short, a process to follow that would establish
> that something is on its way to becoming public domain. Without
> preservation now, the asset might be truly lost.
There are one possible way, but it isn't very safe - see below.
> For example, I've contacted several authors of early computer books
> who've since tossed their floppies with the original manuscript.
> Without this, we're back to scanning and OCR and proofreading.
> They'd thought that absolutely no one was interested. For example,
> Sheldon Leemon, author of "Mapping the C-64", tossed his old Atari
> floppies that had held his manuscript.
Just loosing _one_ media doesn't mean loosing copyright.
If one wants to get rid of his rights, he has to proclam
this in a prominent and usefull manner - like anouncing
it in a state publication or any kind of aprobiate publication.
Like puting an anouncement in a sourcefile.
It's exactly the reverse way as claiming an title for a book
or movie - If you want to avoide that someone else will
use a title of a planned book, you have to anounce it in a
aprobiate manner - i.e. in Germay you till put an add in the
'Boersenblatt des Deutschen Buchhandels' - a 'news'paper
for publishing companies and book traders.
For this case (reprinting a book), there are two and a half
steps to perform:
First try to get knowledge of the holder of rights. Basicly
easy, since book rights are always originated by the author.
Find the author, and ask if there are current licences. Apply
for a licence. If he has no futher interest, he may offer it
exclusive and unlimited for just a beer or two. Try to get a
written statement.
Geting licence doesn't include source material like disks
or scripts - if they are lost, you still have to key in
every letter again ...
Second if you can't locate the author, or any other people
possible owning actual licences or able to legitimate their
rights, you are free to copy and redistribute the work.
The hard term is 'unable to locate the owner' - judges
(at least in Europe and especialy the US) put up very
high bars to cross. You have to show that you did anything
possible (Adds, writing to former publishers, companies,
familie, friends, etc. searching directories).
Now you can start to reproduce the book - BUT in your best
interest you should take step twoandahalf: Opening a closed
account (I don't know the exact US term - its an account
where yo ujust put in money, but never take it back - possibly
managed by a lawyer) for the author/owner of rights. Now
'just' pay the royalities into this account.
If a beliveable owner of rights shows up, you just have to
grant him access to this account. A possible 'new' royality
agreement has to be made at this point. If the owner of
rights disagrees with the summ (you have to open your books
for double check sales and business regarding this licence)
don't grant the access and wait for his court move.
As long as your amount of saved royalities is reasonable
any court decision inf favour or the owner wouldn't grant
more, so be aware and don't put the royalities to low,
becaus if the judge thinks so, the summs can be enormous -
at leat within the strange US system.
This method (step twoandahalf) can (and will) be used on
any matter regarding intelectual properies - books, music
('legal' bootlegs use this to avoid geting dumped in the US)
or patents (If company A won't give company B a licence, B
could try it via twoandahalf - as long as they are able
without support from A :)
The trick is that you are NOT stealing the property - you
are willing to pay, but some strange thing might hinder you.
(This is even at wartime true, which leads to the very strange
fact where Germany took a way more civilizated position than
the US - Germany payed royalities even during the war for
tecnologie used - including weapon tecnologie - while the
US just declared any German patent or Trademark non existent.
Some things can caus dizziness when thinking about)
Ok, back to our book project: If you get the permission
from the author (like Sheldon Leemon) you're fine - don't
forgett to ask if theres still a licence, maybe even a
exclusive one for a publishing company, since in this
case you still have to look for the (original) publisher.
But regarding the KIM, with his chaotic past, a simple
solution isn't available.
Gruss
H.
Oh, and don't forgett: Even a non profit copying action
is forbidden. so if a C= group, for example, make copies
of the C64 ROM to distrimute within their group and friends
FOR FREE, they are subject to pay royalieties.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
Received on Wed Sep 02 1998 - 12:42:16 BST