Re: [dvd-discuss] Specific ironies of the CTEA

[Jeremy Erwin <jerwin(at)ponymail.com>]

On Tuesday, December 10, 2002, at 12:37  PM, Ballowe, Charles wrote:

>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael A Rolenz [mailto:Michael.A.Rolenz@aero.org]
> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 6:16 PM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] Specific ironies of the CTEA
>
>
>> Hey...here's another funny thing that could happen...suppose an
>> author disappears and is declared dead after 7(?) years. His estate
>> sells of all his belongings, gives them away or whatever and 
>> distributes
>> his assets to heirs. Then the author shows up (Not implausible. 
>> Bierced
>> disappeared. Traven of Treasure of the Sierre Madre reclused to 
>> Mexico).
>> Who owns the copyright? Copyright is a FEDERAL right. Being declared
>> dead is a state or local one.
>
> What about cryogenics? An author is frozen and NEVER declared dead.
>
>
Hmm. I seem to recall a a Charles Sheffield novel which features a 
composer and his dead wife, who are frozen for (eventually) billions of 
years. Sheffield, like, Larry Niven, proposes a type of indentured 
servitude to pay off the cryogenic maintenance  debts.

In the story, the composer's works have, of course, declined in 
commercial value-- the only reason that he is reanimated is that the 
cultural interest in the composer's period has been, to a certain 
extent, revived.

Jeremy