Actually no. The Doyle Estate and the BBC would have negotiated out a contract where money goes into both hands. Since Copyright in the UK is far different from copyright in the US. Also, the BBC is not some aspiring, small time author putting out a book , possibly, on the self publishing format because it's faster to get out to people to read, and possibly make some money.
That's why the court case challenging the DE on their strong arm tactics is so important; because then they'll be far more careful about who they'll try it with and they'll be watched more. If they try anything they will be held accountable online, if not in court, again.
And that is why they won't try it with big companies who have their own legal department and a ton of money themselves. Because they possibly can't win that case. But they can bully authors who are trying to take care of their bills and don't have the money to hire a lawyer to defend their right to write Sherlock Holmes fiction to sell because the copyright ran out in the US.
Actually, no. The Doyle Estate and the BBC would have negotiated nothing where money goes into both hands. Copyright in the UK is far more clear cut than copyright in the US, and the Doyle Estate is well aware of the fact that Sherlock Holmes is fully out of copyright here. It is also well aware that the BBC is fully willing to put up licence payers' money where the chances are high of getting it back, which is why they've never pulled their licensing scam here. Simples!
either way the Doyle estte isn't going to fight with BBC. Seeing as how most of the channel's are BBC related in one form or another. At least, I have never heard of another tv company besides the BBC. If there is one at all. And they aren't going to treat a small time, self publish author the same as a big corporation at all. The only reason why they got away with their tactics for so long was because the people they went after either paid up or dropped the writing project all together because they didn't have a lawyer to help sue the Estate back. That's why the court case against the Doyle Estate is so important.
Either way, the Doyle Estate isn't going to fight with BBC. Exactly. They're not going to charge licence fees or film rights on works that both parties are well aware don't require them. The only reason that the Doyle Estate got away with it for so long in the US is the legal uncertainty created by those few stories that are still under copyright, legal uncertainty that has now been cleared up thanks to that fella who is the Stephanie Lenz of the literary world.
Not just that, you can make ebooks out of any of the original Holmes stories except the ones published after 1923 (if in US) and sell them, and the greedy c###s at the Doyle Estate can't legally do anything either to stop you or force your publisher (if not self-published) to pay licence fees!
Indeed. The case will probably have the Doyle Estate re-thinking their bullying of small time authors. I used to have respect for them, but not after I found out how they schemed to get money from people. How they threatened bookstores to take the books off that they weren't getting money from. It truly made me angry.
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Floris_Oren Fri 28 Nov 2014 05:34PM UTC
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