Alvin's Educational Technology Blog

One hundred years later, and pirates are still a problem.  I found this article pointing to a New York Times document written by Mark Twain in 1906.  At the time, copyright protection lasted 42 years.  Twain knew his works would be popular after that time, even if he were to die before it elapsed.  According to Twain, the pirates were the publishers who could continue to use he older material for free if the copyright had expired.  Here is my favorite quote:

And, as Twain once noted, while authors die, “publishers” don’t. For their efforts, Twain called them “pirates,” for they did as true pirates do: “take” things that aren’t “theirs” and profit from it.

Mark Twain was looking out for his kids.  He wanted copyright to continue to pay them royalties even if he were long gone.  He said the grandkids could fend for themselves, but his own kids should be able to profit from their father’s work.

He came up with a scheme that he thought might extend the copyright life of his creations.  He re-wrote his original books half a page at a time.  On the other half of each page in the book were parts of his autobiography.  The autobiography parts were previously unpublished.  Together, he thought the combination would create a new work and thus protect his classics from falling into the public domain.

Notice we wasn’t worried about individuals copying his work.  He consider the publishers to be the real pirates.  I have to wonder what he would think of the RIAA and MPAA today.