Comments on: U.S. vs. Europe on copyright–and how the public can lose both ways http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/us-vs-europe-on-copyright-and-how-the-public-can-lose-both-ways/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:05:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Alexander Chow-Suart http://www.teleread.com/uncategorized/us-vs-europe-on-copyright-and-how-the-public-can-lose-both-ways/comment-page-1/#comment-777118 Alexander Chow-Suart Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:24:49 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=2101#comment-777118 I am a professional author and screenwriter, and I do not believe that authors ever "lose[s] all interest in a work." Usually, if that seems the case, it is because the author does not control the copyright in the work and cannot get it back. A good agent will only lease the copyright to a book, for example, to a publisher for a certain number of years, after which the copyright reverts to the author and s/he is free to sell it to another publisher, self-publish it, post it on the web or whatever. Authors who assign their copyright for ever to a publisher are screwed when/if (when is more likely) the publisher decides the work is no longer marketable. While in an ideal world, and as a vast consumer of free information on the web myself, there would be no copyright, if you believe that a writer/musician/artist/filmmaker has a right to make a living by creating work that the public wants to experience, then some form of copyright - even if it is exercised as a kind of honor system as with Radiohead's In Rainbows - needs to exist. I am a professional author and screenwriter, and I do not believe that authors ever “lose[s] all interest in a work.” Usually, if that seems the case, it is because the author does not control the copyright in the work and cannot get it back. A good agent will only lease the copyright to a book, for example, to a publisher for a certain number of years, after which the copyright reverts to the author and s/he is free to sell it to another publisher, self-publish it, post it on the web or whatever. Authors who assign their copyright for ever to a publisher are screwed when/if (when is more likely) the publisher decides the work is no longer marketable.

While in an ideal world, and as a vast consumer of free information on the web myself, there would be no copyright, if you believe that a writer/musician/artist/filmmaker has a right to make a living by creating work that the public wants to experience, then some form of copyright – even if it is exercised as a kind of honor system as with Radiohead’s In Rainbows – needs to exist.

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