Interesting article on what happens when an author is out of copyright

Thanks for sharing Trotter.

How Orwell was 'updated' is something I wonder if we will see happen to Tolkien.

I am no fan of copyright but I think the time when a writers work comes into Public Domain should be a set period for all writers. So for instance if we say 150 years from that writers birth. Average age in the UK being just over 80 years, add 70 to that. Once that time comes all of their published work no matter when published should be PD. Works published after the 150 years should be PD immediately.

I was reading about how copyright works here in the US yesterday morning. This might be a good contribution to this discussion.

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/01/9511715 ... x9eJRVmE9itMJI2J679MbOnWM

I have no worries whatsoever on this happening to Tolkien. His books (and books about him) still bring in tons of revenue, so you know that the publishers will hold on to the copyright very tightly for as long as possible.

It's my understanding that books enter public domain when/if the copyright isn't renewed.

insurrbution wrote:

It's my understanding that books enter public domain when/if the copyright isn't renewed.

That is not correct, you can see what really happens in both of the articles in this thread.

insurrbution wrote:

I have no worries whatsoever on this happening to Tolkien. His books (and books about him) still bring in tons of revenue, so you know that the publishers will hold on to the copyright very tightly for as long as possible.

It's my understanding that books enter public domain when/if the copyright isn't renewed.

You certainly mis-understand then. I believe in some countries (50 years from death) Tolkien is out of copyright in 2024. HarperCollins have no control over international copyright law. And little influence on domestic copyright law.

I understand, from the Orwell article, is that only the books published during the author's life fell in the public domain at the death+70 years, but that exclude newer enhance editions published since he died ? So, if we talk about Tolkien, the Lord of the Rings will be in the public domain the 1st January 2044, but only in the original edition, excluded the corrections made, for example in the 50th and 60th anniversary editions?
What about the HoMe manuscripts edited by Christopher Tolkien ? I thought that the public domain applied to all the writings of an author, whatever the date of their publication, but in their original form, without any edition from a third party. So in case of the HoMe, the Silmarillion texts would fall into the public domain at the same date, but to published them, one would have to be sure to have the original manuscript, not a text Christopher Tolkien would have emended. Am I wrong ?

This is very complicated, but the text that would be in the Public Domain are books that were published during Tolkien's lifetime as an example any edition of the Hobbit published before the 2nd September 1973.

Any items published after that date would probably and could be wrong about this, not be Public Domain in the UK for 70 years after Christopher Tolkien's death, the 16th January 2090, The Silmarillion and HoMe as examples of this. The underlying text from Tolkien for these would probably be Public Domain in 2044 but it would be very difficult to identify exactly what was copyright and what was not.

However, each publication has to be looked at individually by copyright lawyers to work out the real dates.

Thanks, that also how I understand it. I used HoMe as example, for the Silmarillion is in a more mixed situation ; it's as the work of the father as the one of the son, so in terms of copyright it's a bag of knots, as we say in French.

With the Silmarillion, it would be pretty clear cut, I think. The book was heavily edited by Christopher (and Guy Kay). Christopher's date of death would be the important date for this work. I think with HoME, the original JRR content would drop out of copyright and could be used based on JRRs death date, but use of the commentary would be based on Christopher's death.