Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Four score and seven years ago, Sherlock

And still insisting on copyright protection, are the heirs of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle;
[US Supreme Court] Justice Elena Kagan dismissed a plea by the Scottish author's heirs, who aimed to delay another writer's ability to use Holmes and his loyal assistant Dr Watson in a new book.
....But their lawyer told AFP that the heirs would follow up "in the coming months" and looked forward to presenting their arguments in a petition to review the lower court's decision.
Let's hope he's paid by the hour (and he probably is).
Holmes and Watson, Doyle characters who appeared for the first time in print in 1887, are in four of his novels and 56 stories published in the United States through 1927.
All these are in the public domain, except for the last 10 -- published from 1923 to 1927 -- meaning the vast majority can be used in any way without paying the Doyle estate a licensing fee.
Which seems more than generous, all those years of royalties.

No comments:

Post a Comment