Comment by mullingitover
7 years ago
> If we merely had the same copyright we had when the country first formed, this entire "your books turn off thing" would possibly be completely acceptable: a subset of works would be onerous and somewhat annoying for 28 years, after which you could literally do whatever you want with them
Also, the US didn't respect any other country's copyrights or patents so anything published outside the US would be free immediately.
Yes, I believe Charles Dickens was the first to near simultaneously publish in both the UK and US.
Cant imagine the US letting other countries get away with that now.
A story I heard about Dickens was him landing in the US and finding his latest book already in print there, unauthorised.
That's what I heard, so for his next book.....