Copyright law is complex, and has been since the founding of the nation. Jefferson hated copyrights and patents, and he never applied for any.
The length of time that a copyright applies after the commercial life of a piece, or the life of its author, varies with the kind of work and even when it was completed. When a copyright is owned by a defunct corporation, or an active one that may have abandoned it, it becomes even more complicated.
So we can argue quite a bit about what's legal. But clutching a copyright into the grave and beyond is a sure way to kill something that might yet have life in it.
Maybe making pdfs of Pavic Tales is a copyright violation. And maybe doing so might somehow deprive someone connected with the game of a sale later on... maybe, though it could just as easily function as free advertising, maintaining the very fandom necessary for any future sales.
But there's no 'maybe' about what happens if the Tales disappear. You can't love Pavis when you can't see it.
Dan Ross
> >I would be pretty astonished if you didn't need agreement of all the authors. My last contacts with Steven Martin make me think that wouldn't be trivial to obtain, though it was a while back and he may have mellowed.
>Well I was thinking of his 'Editor, primary author of Book of Drastic Resolutions' hat, which he will never lose, rather than 'Man with a mission to destroy Gloranthan fandom'.
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