Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!enea!kth!draken!tut!santra!tukki!tarvaine From: tarvaine@tukki.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Textbook prices revisited (International editions) Message-ID: <18855@santra.UUCP> Date: 20 Jan 89 12:43:13 GMT References: <14.UUL1.3#913@acw.UUCP> Sender: news@santra.UUCP Reply-To: tarvaine@tukki.jyu.fi (Tapani Tarvainen) Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland Lines: 29 [I guess I should redirect followup, but I've no idea where, especially as I don't get any of the talk.groups.] In article johnm@uts.amdahl.com (John Murray) writes: [...] >It seems to me that US text book publishers run an import cartel, whereby >no book can be imported unless they've already decided not to publish a >US edition. So much for free trade, fair competition, and freedom of >information!! I recently read about an incident in the USA (some 60 years ago, so this isn't exactly up to date information, but old laws don't die...) involving a law according to which any English-language book, published anywhere in the world, will lose its copyright if a separate US edition isn't published within 6 months. I understood it was intended to protect US publishers. Does anybody know about this: was there ever such a law, when was it repealed or is it still in force, etc. (For the curious, the incident referred to was this: Whey Joyce's Ulysses was first brought to the USA, it was seized by the customs as obscene. This was later overruled in court, but by that time 6 months had passed, and there were any number of unauthorized editions around, claiming the copyright had lapsed because of the 6 month rule.) ------------------------------------------------------------------ Tapani Tarvainen BitNet: tarvainen@finjyu Internet: tarvainen@jylk.jyu.fi -- OR -- tarvaine@tukki.jyu.fi