On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 07:57:12PM -0800, Elizabeth Fong wrote: > Jonathan Oxer: > > The big question though (and this is where legal advice may be required) > > is what happens to copyright when the copyright owner ceases to exist? It is auctioned off by the liquidators, along with all other property of the defunct company. Somebody probably owns it. Probably somebody with no conception of what they own (things of little or no value are usually auctioned in large batches just to get rid of them). You'll also probably never find out who, unless it gets acquired by a litigation company (like SCO). In the unlikely event that nobody bought it, the details vary with jurisdiction. For example, in the UK, it would revert to the crown (I think). > > According to copyright law the copyright for works made "for hire" > > exists for 95 years from the date of publication or 120 years from the > > date of creation, whichever is shorter. > > It's considered "work for hire" so unless he had a > > contract with Turcksoft to the contrary he is *not* the copyright > > holder. > > So... I guess the question is, what _can_ we do? Wait about a century for copyright to expire and hope that it doesn't get extended again. -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | `. `' | `- -><- |
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