
Class of 2019: artists and writers whose works have entered the public domain - benbreen
https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/class-of-2019/
======
roenxi
I was talking to a very intelligent Chinese friend of mine who was struggling
to describe scenes in English. My first thought was "Gee, maybe he should
memorise passages from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, since that has some
of the best scene descriptions I have ever read".

No shortage of students like that. You can imagine my hopeful start at seeing
Peake's name on the list at the start of this article, then my slump on
discovering that that was for death+50 years countries, and Australia/US are
death+70.

This stuff kills culture. I can't even propagandise great English literature
to someone trying to learn English. He'll have to go with Jane Austin like
every body else, and he can chuse something more modern if he's got more money
than sense. Thank goodness she died 200 years ago, or I don't know what I'd
do. Maybe learn how to read Chaucer.

~~~
hiccuphippo
So if you are in a death+70 country and happen to find it in a website from a
death+50 country, you are not allowed to read it? The problem, I think, is
redistribution. And the website already has the permission to redistribute it
so it should be fair game to read it from there.

What happens if I travel to a death+50 country and buy a cheaper version there
and return? Isn't it the same?

~~~
pdpi
> The problem, I think (...)

This makes me sad. We’re discussing something as simple as “do I still need to
worry about copyright on books whose author has been dead for half a century”.

The mere fact that you had to quality this with statement with “I think”, and
that I genuinely don’t know if I agree with your interpretation might actually
be the absolute worst part of all of this.

