I suspect the theory is that displaying the letter in a museum is public performance of the work.
Copyright is the right to control copying, adaptation, display, transmission and performance. Not just copying.
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If, by some chance, someone were to find an unpublished manuscript by William Shakespeare, the copyright on that work would, apparently, not expire until 2039, and presumably, publication would be barred until that date.
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I agree with your assessment! However, that the long-ass terms now mainly seem to benefit media conglomerates doesnāt change the fact that the original idea really was to protect authors.
Me neither. The authority of copyright comes from the fact that Person X made a thing, and thatās not something that can be transferred to Person Y.
I know. Iād say life plus 10 years should be acceptable. Maybe allowing for applications for extenuating circumstances when someone dies young to make it life of a spouse or similar plus 10 years or until the youngest child reaches 21 plus 10 years or something.
Certainly an orphan works or historical/public interest sub clause should be in any law to help bypasss they system where itās legitimate as well as any copyrights not actively renewed (through a to be determined system) become public after 20 years of publication.
That makeās sense to me. Why should 2 generations of children who didnāt write/create the thing get money from it? I do not see that as a sensible right.
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