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From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Newsgroups: net.news
Subject: Re: Followup on "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" copyright problem
Message-ID: <3128@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Jul-86 09:34:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.3128
Posted: Fri Jul 18 09:34:57 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jul-86 09:42:13 EDT
References: <4652@sun.uucp> <1986Jul2.233539.3816@utcs.uucp> <464@hadron.UUCP> <3112@utcsri.UUCP> <5175@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Distribution: net
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 36
Summary: 

In article <5175@sun.uucp> chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
[about something I wrote, though the reference seems to have been dropped]
>>                                         .... The *physical correspondence*
>> belongs to the addressee, but the *copyright* belongs to the addressee.  So
                                                                ^^^^^^^^^
>> Niven should have been asked for his permission for this too!
>
>If you read the text of the original letter, Niven GAVE permission by
>telling me to tell Ken what his thoughts were....
>This is an amazingly silly nitpick, by the way.

(As well as containing an amazingly silly mistake, in which I typed "addressee"
for "sender".)  Sorry -- it wasn't meant as a nitpick, exactly because Niven
had encouraged the publication of his letter.  It was meant as a point of
information, the amazing triviality of which was perhaps offset by its
obvious relevance to a discussion of copyright.  Perhaps not.  Didn't mean
to offend.

>> Secondly, one frequently sees biographers (etc.) thanking owners of letters
>> from dead biographees for allowing the letters to be quoted.  Do the rules
>> change when the author is dead? 
>
>No. After a period of time, it all falls into the public domain.  If the
>letters are donated to a library or some such, so do the rights.  There was
>recently a HUGE volume of letters by John W. Campbell, Jr. published, and a
>great deal of time and effort was spent securing rights from Conde Nast (the
>publisher he worked for) and his widow to do so.  When someone dies, rights
>are transferred to their estate just like every other property.

I'd complain about how trivial this is, too, except that I find it interesting.
Thanks.
-- 

Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
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