martin f krafft wrote: > I am curious: what happens to his/her copyrights when a person dies, > specifically wrt licence choice. Do people just assume that the > deceased didn't ever want to change the licence?
When an author dies, the copyrights are inherited just like his other property. So you can just go to the heirs and ask them to relicense. They don't have to take the wishes of the deceased author into account (apart from moral rights in certain situations and jurisdictions). The problem is that usually people don't specify copyrights in their will. If no one pays attention when handling the estate, several years later it may be impossible to figure out who actually inherited the copyright. Worst case, you'll need to wait another 70 years until the copyright expires. Arnoud -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
