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From: mattack@eskimo.com (Matt Ackeret)
Subject: Re: Sherlock Holmes (was: London)
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 20:06:17 GMT
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In article <4fj7jb$hl8@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
JMurphy42 <jmurphy42@aol.com> wrote:
>>I thought it was 50 years from the death of the author, or 75 years if
>>the copyright is owned by a corporate entity everywhere but
>>the US until the US signed the Berne Convention.
>Doyle died in 1930, so either way that point is moot. (BTW - I did a
>little research on
>the subject. Thought I'd share what I found)
>  For 30-40 years after Doyle died, his estate was downright fanatic about
>the use
>of his work (After all, none of them had any talent, except his son, who
....
>  Some time later, they sold the copyright to some company who still owned
>it as
>of 1980, at least to the extent that they had forbidden the publishing of
>two of
..
>  Were it just the Estate, I believe that the time limit has run out.
>However, with no
>knowledge of such laws, I don't know if the sale of a copyright extends
>it.

	Though this is "common knowledge", here's a bit more info, 
filtered through my brain.

	In the "Star Trek The Next Generation Companion" (first published
in '91 or '92, but the version I have is updated and does the whole 
series and Generations), in the episode list, after talking about the
2nd Sherlock Holmes episode, it says (PARAPHRASED):

	It is unlikely that there will be another Sherlock Holmes episode.
After the airing of this episode, the estate, which has owned the rights
to Sherlock Holmes for over 100 years, contacted Paramount and said that
it was still copyrighted.  Any further use would require a usage fee.


	The bizarre thing is that there _was_ another Holmes episode, 
as far as I remember.  I think the whole book wasn't gone through and 
updated.. Many references sound like they were written during the run of
the show.  (It's a good book overall though.)

	Anyway, I may update this info when I'm at home, but I thought some
might be interested in this bit.
-- 
unknown@apple.com		Apple II Forever
These opinions are mine, not Apple's.
