COPYRIGHT-L Archives

Archiver > COPYRIGHT > 2002-11 > 1037489445


From: Pat Asher <>
Subject: Re: [COPYRIGHT] Who Owns Copyright on Very Old Letters / was "Old letters published in 1926"
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 18:30:45 -0500
References: <6b.1b2c8d0.2b000c65@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <3DD6B93E.31975D3D@global2000.net>


At 04:31 PM 11/16/2002, you wrote:
>1) Am I correct that the owner would own the copyright?
>2) Can anyone establish who owned the letters so that the copyright
>question can be answered?

Cliff,

I think you are muddling two entirely different issues.

The publisher/author owns the copyright. Whether other descendants or
heirs of the original author are entitled to proceeds from
publication/copyright would be a question for the probate courts.

However, letters are personal property, and the Civil War letters could
have been transferred either according to the laws of inheritance in effect
in the state of residence at the time of the author's or subsequent owner's
death; or they could have been transferred by gift by any of the legal
owners at any point during the 150 years since they were written.

Bottom line, unless a current publication made millions, I would guess the
courts would laugh at any claim to a share of income resulting from
copyright based on "possession" of 150 year old personal letters.

Here is another site for copyright terms for unpublished works:

http://cidc.library.cornell.edu/copyright/


Pat

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