Re: Digest Number 3641

Joseph Harris wrote:
> Term is one that I have no special view on. But I have two  
> questions. the first is why any single person, or small group,  
> dismisses over a hundred years of discussion by many, many people  
> inside and outside the business and within over a hundred countries  
> and at WIPO. In other words I find views without justification or  
> explanation failing to understand the complexity of the question.

I don't dismiss the question easily. You know I've been part of the  
discussion for a very long time, and with a lot of people on both  
sides of the issue.

My thoughts run, in very over-simplified fashion:
--Most books, whether trade or not, are dead in the water after 2 or 3  
years, so 10 is plenty to cover that.
--Offering an option to renew allows those who want to extend their  
control to do so, and keeps the contact database updated.
--Eternal copyright really does represent an expensive and extensive  
requirement for database management, if those who wish to use old  
material are to be able to ask permission. That requirement will fall  
both on the owners of rights, and upon some governmental or other  
agency, and aren't really a cost effective use of society's resources.  
At some point, these rights should be treated as abandoned property.
--Most societies have some way of treating abandoned property, and  
it's usually calibrated to the worth of the property involved. Land,  
for example, is deeded, and the ownership is generally clearly  
delineated, and efforts are made to keep track of those owners. (For  
tax rolls, if no other reason!) Property of small worth is usually  
reclaimed for public use, or trashed. The vast majority of old  
copyrights would definitely fall into that category.


> Secondly what are at least the parameters for an argument about  
> term? Should term be blanket, as it is now, or should it vary from  
> niche to niche?

I would argue that it should be blanket or you end up with arguments  
about which one applies where there are multiple possibilities. Follow  
the KISS rule, wherever possible.

> Marion suggests a ten year copyright term. But this immediately  
> introduces the need for sets of definitions that are vital to  
> writers and publishers. When does the ten years start?

At publication, or if never published, at the earliest date that can  
be proven for its existence in the current form.

> What happens if a new edition is being discussed after nine years?  
> Is that edition still in copyright until sold out;

New edition = new material = new copyright. Old edition runs out  
unless renewed. (And  you're dumb if you don't renew!)

> and does 'in print' entitle reprints if demand is high? How does an  
> author properly benefit for a long-popular book like Lord of the  
> Rings, rather than benefitting all the chancers who give nothing to  
> publishing but will happily line their own pockets?

I said nothing about in print. But, frankly, if the rights are still  
valuable, perhaps infinite renewals should be allowed. Not sure that  
anyone has a right to take valuable property away from those who  
create and generate that value.

>
> Underlying this is the question that Americans usually dodge. Why is  
> the work of the pen any less property than anything else that a  
> person makes.

I don't think it is. But I know that many people see ideas as  
something that should be shared, and extend this to artistic and  
literary works.

> Price also seems to me to be settled without real thought. Marion  
> argues at one point about the prices needed for different types of  
> publication, and then parcels 'fiction' into one, unconsidered  
> trifle - which most people do, let me add.
>
> But there is a massive difference between a Harlequin or Mills and  
> Boon romance, and a Bonfire of the Vanities. Marion knows full well  
> that only the writer and the publisher can make the calculations to  
> determine the price and the formats of publishing and their timings.  
> Most on this list find the impositions of Kindle and others very  
> restrictive and sometimes quite difficult in making their business  
> work.

There's a huge difference between the content, but the price points  
vary relatively little, for fiction in the States. Mass market  
paperbacks sell for between $6.99 and $8.99, more or less. Trade paper  
usually sells for between $14.95 and $16.95, with outliers down as low  
as $12.95 (mass sellers) and as high as $19.95 (long-tail specials).  
Hardbacks are in the high 20s, unless they're mass market authors, in  
which case they MAY sell in the low 20s.

Now, popular formula fiction often is published in mass market  
paperback only, and the very limited interest literary productions are  
often not published as mass market pb at all, so that could be  
considered a de facto price differentiation. But still, I suspect that  
ebook fiction will be priced within a narrow range for quite some  
time, but that the pricing will decline as a function of time-after- 
pub-date.

>
> Indeed, I am amazed at the extent to which people seem to believe it  
> is their right to decide on the business models of writers and  
> publishers, and on their distribution methods.

Um, that's what I do professionally: help publishers decide how to  
make the most money from their content. I don't have the right to  
decide, but I do have the information and experience to tell them when  
they're probably making a mistake.



Marion Gropen
Gropen Associates, Inc.
By-The-Question Consulting,  Tools for Publishers, & Classes
www.GropenAssoc.com
Her blog: www.GropenAssoc.com/blog





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