Copyright after the death of the author : line between use and abuse
The recent settlement that put an end to the case opposing the Estate of James Joyce to Prof Carol Loeb Schloss is a very important one. The latter, English Professor at Stanford sued the Estate of James Joyce to establish her right to publish copyrighted material in her biography of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce. The grandson of Joyce, Mr. Stephen Joyce, strictly governs the Estate. He is acting as a very efficient and controlling guardian of Joyce's Estate and of his family. He destroyed letters from his aunt (ie Lucia Joyce), he persuaded the Irish government to cancel readings of Joyce during Bloomsday and he's known to refuse every request to quote unpublished documents such as letters. ... So his relationship with scholars is usually tensed as well as complicated. But this time was different, since the Estate refused to let her use copyrighted material to achieve her work, Ms Schloss brought an action into Justice under the fair use doctrine, helped by fellows from Stanford Law School, amongst them, Anthony Falzone and Lawrence Lessing,members of the Fair Use Project initiated in the US.
On March 22Th, the parties agreed on a settlement. And this is a victory for the fair use doctrine since the Estate agrees to let Prof. Schloss to publish her biography, using the litigious material.
Of course, this case is specific because of the well-known position of the James Joyce's Estate. Nevertheless, heirs of authors that prohibit the use of copyrighted material or restrict access to unpublished documents are quite common.
For instance, remember Cassandra Austen burnt letters from her sister Jane or Charlotte Brontë poems from sister Emily. or Ted Hughes deleting pages from Sylvia Plath's diary.
The cross line between copyright, privacy, public interest and scholar work is always thin.
Concerning copyrighted material, the French Intellectual Property Code gives us a solution for that kind of situation that can be much more effective. In case of abuse by the copyright holder an action can be brought into Justice and even by the Ministry of Culture.
On March 22Th, the parties agreed on a settlement. And this is a victory for the fair use doctrine since the Estate agrees to let Prof. Schloss to publish her biography, using the litigious material.
Of course, this case is specific because of the well-known position of the James Joyce's Estate. Nevertheless, heirs of authors that prohibit the use of copyrighted material or restrict access to unpublished documents are quite common.
For instance, remember Cassandra Austen burnt letters from her sister Jane or Charlotte Brontë poems from sister Emily. or Ted Hughes deleting pages from Sylvia Plath's diary.
The cross line between copyright, privacy, public interest and scholar work is always thin.
Concerning copyrighted material, the French Intellectual Property Code gives us a solution for that kind of situation that can be much more effective. In case of abuse by the copyright holder an action can be brought into Justice and even by the Ministry of Culture.
