DC> On 20 Dec 04  02:24:56, Tom Walker got back to Bob Klahn
->> Re: Monthly Rules

 ->>  grand children to live when you are long gone. Not at the cost
 ->>  of losing so much more. Everything created by any of us must
 ->>  eventually find it's way into the common store from which new
 ->>  works are created.

 TW>> I feel the same way. BUT unfortunatly we are in a Very small
 TW>> Minority. I see it as part of the "FREE RIDE"
mentality. They want to
 TW>> get al lthe benifits without the Effort that their Father or
 TW>> Grandfather put in. Totaly Selfish and Selfcentered mentality but so
 TW>> goes the United States in particualr. 

 DC> It's one thing to protect one's legacy.  But, as this 
 DC> thread shows, overly controlling it gets you nowhere.  

 DC> I can see licensing the book for reprint.  That would add 
 DC> to that legacy.  To myopically prevent that is detrimental 
 DC> to them in the long run.  

 It isn't just preventing it, it's how much is just forgotten. If
 the publisher is long out of business, and the author is dead,
 and the legal copyright holder is unknown, it is just not
 practical to use it. And if someone else stumbles on the same
 facts or principles, and publishes it, he can be sued by the
 copyright holder, maybe 100 years after the book went out of
 print.

 It used to be you had to file a copy of your material to get a
 copyright, and you had to apply for the copyright. Now you just
 write it, publish it, and don't even need a copyright statement.

 Of course, it used to be you copyrighted a computer program, you
 didn't patent it. Patents for computer programs are another
 screw up.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... The problem with the human race is that it has low admission standards.
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