Forum: Lost Stories

That engenders a sense of lack of originality.

Everything that can be said has been said - but not everybody has yet had a chance to say it.

Everything that can be said has been said - but not everybody has yet had a chance to say it.

While it may be true that "there is nothing new under the sun" we have yet to exhaust the possible arrangements.

Author Ray Bradbury often stated that an author should read to broaden their knowledge base. His recommendation to aspiring authors was to every night for 1000 days read a short story, an essay and a poem. He did qualify that by saying you should read quality works and not just any rubbish you can find.

On the other hand I have seen several recommendations NOT to read anything in the genre that you are writing so as not to be influenced.

If you have not watched Ray Bradbury on You tube I highly recommend it. He is quite entertaining as a speaker and has some... unique perspectives. He has a few different videos where he speaks about writing and his history as a writer.

dayum, Lloyd Biggle is not on ............................ - unfortunately.

So why post a link?

You are aware that the site has the same ownership as SOL and is not subject to any restrictions in this forum?

You are aware that the site has the same ownership as SOL and is not subject to any restrictions in this forum?

Yes.

The OP stated the story in question was what is so charmingly referred to as a 'dead tree book'. Therefore the chances of the author posting it to a free story site are ridiculously small. Added to which you might as well add that it's not on finestories.com either. That would be just as helpful.

It's not about the link, just the pointlessness.

Look around that site and you will find a lot of stories which were originally published on dead trees there, if someone mentions a Science Fiction story then it makes sense to check if it has made its way over to the sister site.
This is not limited to short stories, I have some older books which have now made it to there.

This is not limited to short stories, I have some older books which have now made it to there.

First published 1961 so you have a long wait for copyright to expire...

First published 1961 so you have a long wait for copyright to expire...

Is there something magic about the year 1961 that makes its publication date have a longer copyright. Is there some magic year before then that makes a copyright shorter? Or longer?

Technically, the magic date is actually 1976. That's when the term of US copyright first changed to the life + x formula used by the Berne Convention. However, it's not that simple.

Prior to 1976, under the 1909 US Copyright Act, the term of copyright was 20 years, renewable once and once only for another 20 years.

Of course that's complicated, by the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright extension.

The 1976 copyright act brought US copyright law into closer(but not exact) alignment with the Bern Convention.

It increased the terms of copyright to author's life + 70 years and eliminated mandatory registration (under the 1909 act you had to register to have a copyright at all).

However, none of the changes in the 1976 act were made retroactive to works under copyright before 1976, and the 1976 act allowed all pre-1976 works still under their original 20 year term to be renewed per the 1909 act terms whenever they expired.

Then comes the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Act which extended the term of copyright to life + 100 years, and it was explicitly retroactive to all works still under active copyright.

So for any US works to be for certain off copyright they would have to be older than 1998-40 years or 1958 or earlier. however anything as late as 1976 could be public domain if the author failed to renew.

Renewal under the 1909 act was not automatic, you had to explicitly file for it and there were fees that had to be paid, both for the original registration and the renewal. So it's possible that some authors/publishers with 1959-1976 works that were not in active circulation post 1976 didn't bother to renew.

Thank you for the explanation. As to the assertion by someone else that a 1961 copyright doesn't expire for a long time - maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. I gather it could have expired as early as 1989?

Thank you for the explanation. As to the assertion by someone else that a 1961 copyright doesn't expire for a long time - maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. I gather it could have expired as early as 1989?

Maybe. But in fact the copyright for the story in question was renewed in 2010 which means that copyright existed or was reinstated (yes that is possible) and also that it will now expire long after all of us do.

But in fact the copyright for the story in question was renewed in 2010 which

Not possible under US copyright law. Under the 1909 act it would get one renewal and that would have been in 1981.

As for reinstatement, that is technically possible, but requires publication of a revision of the original, not just republication.

The record you found appears to be for a Anthology (Full title: Chronocide mission & 9 other titles.) The anthology would have it's own copyright, but the individual stories in the anthology are not necessarily covered by that copyright.

I gather it could have expired as early as 1989?

NO. It would have either had the fist 20 year term expire in 1981 and not be renewed, or it would have had an active copyright in 1998 and it won't expire until 100 years after the authors's death, 2061 at the absolute earliest (assuming the author died right after it was published).

Prior to 1976, under the 1909 US Copyright Act, the term of copyright was 20 years, renewable once and once only for another 20 years

Actually the 1909 term is 28 years, not twenty.