Connecting Readers and Writers discussion

Since the final decision on this matter will impact future copyright protections on all books, I thought some group members might wish to weigh-in on the following dispute.

Copyright protections have expired on all but the last ten Sherlock Holmes novels written. The copyrights on those are due to expire in 2022.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's decendents are disputing an American author's claim to be able to write new Sherlock Holmes novels; so long as they do not reference any activities portrayed in the ten stories still under copyright.

The case is being heard in a Chicago, Illinois federal courthouse by Judge Ruben Costillo because the Doyle family's literary agent resides there. The Doyle family's attorney is William Zieske.

The American is Leslie Klinger. He teaches a UCLA Extension course on Sherlock Holmes.

Do any authors or readers wish to offer their opinion concerning the matter?

What was the deal on the recent S.H. movies? what were the legalities there?

I'm not sure where I stand on these things. On the one hand, Doyle's descendants should have some rights; but on the other, if it's been like 100 years, maybe they should go out and earn some royalties of their own.

I'm not familiar enough with current laws, but if they expire after say 100 years, I'd say (generally speaking) new authors should be able to do new work, or petition to do so 100 years after the last work produced by the orinigal author or his/her rights-holding descendants, but (1) obviously they have to give credit to the original author/creator, and (2) the family or inheriting rights owners still get a small cut (like maybe 10% -- after all, after 100 years, they can't claim to have done much to have earned that except be born). Something like that. I hope that in 100 years my family will still get something from my work, but if they aren't making use of it and someone else actually remembers me and wants to bring my work back to life, that'd be great!

I would have thought the characters ie Holmes and Watson appear in the last 10 books - and hence are still under copyrite.

I'm with J.D. on this one. If the terms have expired. then they have expired, especially if the family isn't making any use of the litany of works.

The thing is the rights haven't expired, have they? And everyone and their dog are making use of the works, from television series to films. There will be terms for all of them somewhere.

I think Grace is more correct. It is the characters that count. Many characters from books are now owned by film companies. They buy the character, not just the story, hence the large number of sequels. Some films state "based on characters created by..." if they don't actually own them and have to borrow the rights to use them.

I am no expert on copyright law though, but I would imagine the current movie and television rights would determine the outcome for any new books. They often include book tie ins remember.

But you never know. Holmes would have dismissed it all as a mere distraction, while Watson would have been most annoyed that his stories for the Strand(?) were being exploited.