Just a short follow-up. It appears that what I am asking about is called "orphan works" and UK law recently changed regarding them: http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/05/orphan-works
We are 33 years out from the original publishing date (no other editions were printed and it was never even published in paperback). I know who the original publishing house was, but there would be no reason to give them a "heads-up" on what I'd like to do... they can't possibly have publishing rights that extend this far out (can they?) Interesting. On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 5:14 PM, Darren Addy <pixelsmi...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have an interesting situation that I just bumped across. I've found > a long out-of-print title (published in 1980) by a now deceased author > (died 2009) who, in a 1997 USENET post, gave permission to reproduce > ("photo/ copy") his book if anyone found a copy. He also stated that > he owned the copyright (therefore could give such permission). I have > reason to believe that the title might be reasonably popular today, if > again available. > > I guess my question is: Would his copyright have passed to his heirs? > (Or what happens to one's copyright at death in the UK system)? Does > his giving permission to reproduce mean that I could now republish it > in the U.S. without treading on anyone's rights? Or if someone > maintains rights, how might I go about finding out who and procuring > them? > > Thanks for any insights. > > -- > "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - > Peter Galassi -- "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - Peter Galassi -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.