Resurrecting out-of-print math books

In article <Rbwfk.12489$hz1.200638@weber.videotron.net>,
David Bernier <david250@videotron.ca> wrote:
>What does an author need to do for the rights of his/her book
>to be returned? Is writing a letter to the publisher enough?

Often it is. In the best-case scenario, the publisher will simply send the
author a rights-reversion form to fill out, and the matter will be taken
care of.

However, if the publisher holds all the rights, then in particular it is
under no obligation to return them to the author. This can be annoying,
obviously. Some publishers won't reprint books but also won't release
the rights to them, thinking that they might want to reprint them in the
future.

The best way to avoid getting into such a mess (if you're an author)
is not to let it happen in the first place. That is, make sure that
your initial contract with the publisher gives you the rights back if
the publisher chooses to let the book go out of print. Most publishers
are amenable to having such a clause if you ask for it.
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences

tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:
>
> We have all experienced the frustration of discovering that a favorite
> book of ours has gone out of print. Bringing such a book back into print
> is no easy matter. Publishers want some assurance that the book will sell
> well enough for them to recoup the costs of republishing. Even in today's
> world of on-demand publishing, someone (perhaps the author, if still
> alive) still has to go to the trouble of securing the copyright and then
> making the text available. Few will go to such trouble unless they know
> that the book is in demand, and the trouble is that ascertaining the
> demand seems to be difficult.

[...]

How long does it take these days for a book to pass into the public domain?

--
hz

In article <487EAFAD.C6665F2C@gmail.com>, herbzet <herbzet@cox.net> wrote:
>How long does it take these days for a book to pass into the public domain?

Wikipedia says:

Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works, the signatory states are required to provide copyright protection
for a minimum term of the life of the author plus fifty years, but they are
permitted to provide for a longer term of protection. Following the 1993
Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection, member states of
the European Union implemented protection for a term of the author's life
plus seventy years.

[...]

The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 --- alternatively known
as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or
pejoratively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act --- extended copyright
terms in the United States by 20 years. Before the Act (under the Copyright
Act of 1976), copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50
years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship; the Act extended
these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate
authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication,
whichever endpoint is earlier. The Act also affected copyright terms for
copyrighted works published prior to January 1, 1978, also increasing their
term of protection by 20 years, to a total of 95 years from publication.
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences

In article <Rbwfk.12489$hz1.200638@weber.videotron.net>,
David Bernier <david250@videotron.ca> wrote:
>tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:
>> In article<p3un74hjt9s9kbrtjjca66rmejl65h9lbv@4ax.com >,
>> A.L.<alewando@zanoza.com> wrote:
>>> On 14 Jul 2008 14:21:40 GMT, tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:
>>> In many cases when publisher is not interested in republishing a book,
>>> it returns publishing rights to the author. There are many authors who
>>> in such situations publish book online, free.

It may or may not.

>>> I believe that it is more reasonable to convince authors to follow
>>> this procedure than to ask publisher to make new release.

>> I agree.

>> This does not eliminate the need for a website like Schmid's. In fact, I
>> got the idea for the website precisely because there was a particular book
>> that I was interested in; I tried to convince the author to do what you
>> suggest. But the author was unwilling to go to the trouble of asking
>> the publisher to give him back the rights to his book, because he was
>> convinced that nobody was interested in his book. If I could have shown

>What does an author need to do for the rights of his/her book
>to be returned? Is writing a letter to the publisher enough?

No. The copyright owner can sit on the copyright
until it runs out. However, the situation is
partially as you state.

>David Bernier

>> the author that lots of people had expressed interest in his book, I think
>> he would have been persuaded.

It is more difficult than you think.

>> Also, of course, sometimes the author is deceased.




--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558

In article <g5o95v$5gi4@odds.stat.purdue.edu>,
Herman Rubin <hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu> wrote:
>It is more difficult than you think.

By "it" here, I assume you mean an author regaining copyright from the
publisher. Do you have any specific anecdotes you can share, about
particular publishers both refusing to bring a book back into print
and refusing to release the rights to an author who asks for it?
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences

In article <487fc00d$0$294$b45e6eb0@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>,
tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:

> In article <g5o95v$5gi4@odds.stat.purdue.edu>,
> Herman Rubin <hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu> wrote:
> >It is more difficult than you think.
>
> By "it" here, I assume you mean an author regaining copyright from the
> publisher. Do you have any specific anecdotes you can share, about
> particular publishers both refusing to bring a book back into print
> and refusing to release the rights to an author who asks for it?

I don't know any book examples, but there's a notorious example
in recorded music. Do a search for Dave Bulmer, Celtic Music,
and/or Nic Jones.

--
Gerry Myerson (gerry@maths.mq.edi.ai) (i -> u for email)

tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:
> In article <487EAFAD.C6665F2C@gmail.com>, herbzet <herbzet@cox.net> wrote:
> >How long does it take these days for a book to pass into the public domain?
>
> Wikipedia says:
>
> Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
> Works, the signatory states are required to provide copyright protection
> for a minimum term of the life of the author plus fifty years, but they are
> permitted to provide for a longer term of protection. Following the 1993
> Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection, member states of
> the European Union implemented protection for a term of the author's life
> plus seventy years.
>
> [...]
>
> The Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 --- alternatively known
> as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, Sonny Bono Act, or
> pejoratively as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act --- extended copyright
> terms in the United States by 20 years. Before the Act (under the Copyright
> Act of 1976), copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50
> years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship; the Act extended
> these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate
> authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication,
> whichever endpoint is earlier. The Act also affected copyright terms for
> copyrighted works published prior to January 1, 1978, also increasing their
> term of protection by 20 years, to a total of 95 years from publication.

Yikes!

--
hz

tchow@lsa.umich.edu wrote:

> Wikipedia says:
>
> Under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
> Works, the signatory states are required to provide copyright protection
> for a minimum term of the life of the author plus fifty years, but they
> are
> permitted to provide for a longer term of protection. Following the 1993
> Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection, member states
> of the European Union implemented protection for a term of the author's
> life plus seventy years.

I never saw any explanation for this extension of copyright.
At first sight the effect seems to be that an author's grandchildren
or even great-grandchildren will benefit from his work.
This ancestral right does not seem to be applied in any other area,
except perhaps royalty (as in kings and queens).

In article <Po%fk.26417$j7.470956@news.indigo.ie>,
Timothy Murphy <gayleard@eircom.net> wrote:
>I never saw any explanation for this extension of copyright.

Well, in the case of the U.S. at least, part of the reason is that
companies who had highly lucrative copyrights that were about to expire
lobbied heavily to have the copyright extended.

If you mean an "explanation" not in the sense of a causal explanation but
a reasoned argument that extended copyrights are a good thing, then some
such arguments have been proposed (although I don't find them very
convincing myself). For example, some economists argue that works in
the public domain tend to be under-exploited or over-exploited while
works protected by copyright are exploited more efficiently in the
marketplace.
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great, will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences

In article <487fc00d$0$294$b45e6eb0@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>,
<tchow@lsa.umich.edu> wrote:
>In article <g5o95v$5gi4@odds.stat.purdue.edu>,
>Herman Rubin <hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu> wrote:
>>It is more difficult than you think.

>By "it" here, I assume you mean an author regaining copyright from the
>publisher. Do you have any specific anecdotes you can share, about
>particular publishers both refusing to bring a book back into print
>and refusing to release the rights to an author who asks for it?

I did not have refusal in getting back the copyright of my
late wife's book, but as it had gone from publisher to
publisher to publisher, we could not find the original
contract. The last publisher was getting out of this type
of book.

Having one publisher take over from another is not that
unusual. I suggest authors keep their original contracts
in a safe deposit box.
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558