Re: copyright after death

[George Scithers owlswick@xxxxxxxx]

For many years, the Scott Meredith Literary Agency would act for missing
science fiction authors by good-faith negotiations with publishers who
wanted to publish such material. I don't know that they ever got in trouble
for doing so.

George Scithers of owlswickpress@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2002 9:16 AM
Subject: Re: copyright after death


> In a message dated 8/16/02 9:22:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> nbauman@xxxxxxxx writes:
> ≪ Sometimes the author is dead, and has no heirs, and would have been
happy
> to know that his work would have been printed after his death, rather
than
> be forgotten.
> Why make the presumption that the untraceable author wouldn't want it
> reprinted? Why not make the presumption that the author would want it
> reprinted?  ≫
>
>   It's amazing how consistently the wishes of dead people happen to
> coincide with our own.
>   Maybe the author would have wanted to make extensive revisions before
> reissuing it. Maybe he was an ornery recluse who just didn't want to be
> published anymore. Who knows?
>   But why make presumptions at all? Why not act on the basis of
> incontestable reality -- i.e., that the wishes of the author are unknown
and
> unknowable, but the law is clear?
>   Lynn
>