Posted: July 20, 2000 at 13:19:03: by Michael Martinez
: I had thought, and excuse me if I'm speaking from ignorance,
: that copyrights could be renewed by the author or his estate
: in purpetuity. Aren't the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
: still copyrighted by his estate? As long as the books are in
: print and Tolkien's family wants to renew the copyright I
: thought they were safe.Copyright can only be extended 75 years past the death of the author under current laws. However, I believe all works published before 1923 or thereabouts are now in the public domain, because the copyright laws back then were different from what we have now. As for publishing an "authoritative" SILMARILLION, only Christopher Tolkien could do that, and he has no intention of putting one together (from what I hear). Nothing coming out of academia would be considered authoritative, although it might seem credible. Of course, "authoritative" is one of those words that marketers like to use. I suppose an "authoritative" rewrite will be done some day. It would be a shame if it didn't come from the hand of Christopher Tolkien, however. I suppose, if I live long enough (and I intend never to die), I might put together a Michael Martinez SILMARILLION...but that's at least another 100 years away (depending on when Christopher passes on). Or we could always set up a Russian Web site and post one there. :) (Just kidding!)
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