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Eric Eldred and Eldritch
Press
Higginson
Book Company
The Higginson Book Company, managed by Laura Bjorklund, is a for-profit sole proprietorship that reprints books based on consumer demand in fields such as genealogy, historic maps, local and county history, and the Civil and Revolutionary Wars. It focuses on books originally printed in small editions that are no longer in print and therefore difficult to obtain from any other source. Ms. Bjorklund and her employees carefully research any book published after 1922 to determine whether or not it is copyrighted, which is often very difficult given the type of rare books in which they specialize. The Copyright Extension Act prevented works published in 1923 from entering the public domain at the end of 1998. Because of the difficulties in tracking the authors or heirs of such old works, the Act effectively means that Higginson Book Company will be unable to reprint any books copyrighted in 1923 for another 20 years.
Tri-Horn
International
Edward R. Kamp and his partner David Twohig started Tri-Horn International in Scituate, Massachusetts in 1993. Tri-Horn International is dedicated to developing and selling products that stir golfers to investigate the game's history and traditions. Its products are not only historical, but, they hope, instructional and inspirational. For example, the "Sport Movie Book"™ is a small book that resembles an old movie when flipped through quickly with the thumb. The company planned to use pictures of early century golfers such as Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen in these books. "The Sport Movie Book"™ would incorporate the golfer's career statistics and a portrait of the golfer. The Copyright Term Extension Act has impeded Tri-Horn's plans to use such pictures and other materials from the 1920's in the multimedia products. The problem is especially significant because the 1920's was an important decade in golf history. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to research the copyright history and get permission to use such old works, and therefore some of the products may never be made.
Edwin
F. Kalmus Co.
Edwin F. Kalmus Co., Inc. is a for-profit company located in Boca Raton, Florida, that specializes in the publishing of public domain music for orchestras. Leon Galison is the President of the company, and his grandfather Edwin F. Kalmus started the company in 1926. The company has approximately 8,500 active customers. Masters Music, a division of the publishing company, specializes in publishing piano, solo and chamber music that is in the public domain. Mr. Galison publishes a catalog at the beginning of every school year listing the titles that will be available for purchase. The catalog published in the fall of 1998 contained a list of works that would be available on January 1, 1999, as they were expected to enter the public domain at that time. This list included works by such famous composers as Bela Bartok, Maurice Ravel and Richard Strauss. The company was forced to distribute a retraction after the Copyright Term Extension Act was passed, noting that these works would not enter the public domain until January of 2019. This has drastically effected the Kalmus business in light of the fact that they almost exclusively publish public domain music.
Luck's
Music Library
Randolph P. Luck is the President of Luck's Music Library, a for-profit company located in Madison Heights, Michigan, that specializes in selling and renting classical orchestral sheet music. Luck's Music Library rents and sells music to approximately 7,000 orchestras and 12,000 individuals worldwide, and the music ranges from elementary-level to operatic. Approximately 15 percent of their business is in renting music, a large portion of which is in the public domain. About half of the music they sell is also in the public domain. When a piece enters the public domain, the company can sell or rent it for a drastically lower price. For example, "Alborada Del Gracioso" by Maurice Ravel, which was written in 1923, is rented to community orchestras for $360.00 for two performances. Luck's Music Library planned to sell the piece for $150.00 (to be performed an unlimited number of times) starting in the beginning of 1999 when it was scheduled to enter the public domain. The Copyright Term Extension Act prevented this piece and many others from entering the public domain, significantly impairing the plans of Luck's Music Library. The Act also impedes the ability of orchestras, many of which have small annual budgets, from playing these famous works.
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| Last modified April 13, 1999. | Berkman Center for Internet & Society |