Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

The rewritten version gets a fresh copyright timer of its own, but the original's copyright still expires the same time it was always going to.



So, if the publisher changes a single word in a new copyright, and the old one expires, can the publisher sue someone who shared the old version? It'd only be one word off, so they could argue it's effectively infringement...


They could make that argument, but wouldn’t succeed (speaking from the US legal viewpoint, anyway). The only copyright held by the publisher would cover the additions and changes; the original work would no longer be copyrightable.


So ironically the forbidden versions will be released freely first. Hilarious.


No. If that trick worked, you'd have seen it happen to at least one extremely popular public domain work (e.g., the King James Bible) by now.


The King James Bible is actually under perpetual Crown Copyright in the UK.


You can always sue, but the court may laugh at you.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: