Copywrite Expiration and Publication of Older Lanuage Books
Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:32 pm
I've been learning Russian using Assimil Russian Without Toil (1950's version). I have found it to be an extremely valuable resource: much better, IMO, than Russian With Ease (current version). I also have copies of other older books (e.g. Teach Yourself, Berlitz, Colloquial, Hugo etc.). I was wondering if anyone here knew when the copyright expires for any of these older resources or if they will at all.
Also, why do the companies decide not to publish these versions anymore? It seems like it could be a valuable revenue stream to allow these older versions to be sold by using on-demand publishing. However, I don't know the language course business, so there might be a good reason this isn't done. Also, it seems that if they didn't want to do that, they could release the copyright. I'm not sure if there's a legal way to do that.
It just seems that as time goes on, it will be harder and harder to obtain physical copies and these resources will be lost with time, and that would be a shame. Anyway, it'd be nice to hear from anyone with any insight into this. Thanks!
Also, why do the companies decide not to publish these versions anymore? It seems like it could be a valuable revenue stream to allow these older versions to be sold by using on-demand publishing. However, I don't know the language course business, so there might be a good reason this isn't done. Also, it seems that if they didn't want to do that, they could release the copyright. I'm not sure if there's a legal way to do that.
It just seems that as time goes on, it will be harder and harder to obtain physical copies and these resources will be lost with time, and that would be a shame. Anyway, it'd be nice to hear from anyone with any insight into this. Thanks!