(urth) Drotte-Roche mixup

David Stockhoff dstockhoff at verizon.net
Wed Apr 20 16:03:15 PDT 2011


Right, the LoC doesn't care if you fix typos. But you do need to buy a 
new ISBN and  apply for CIP info for any new edition. Which can get 
burdensome when you own thousands of titles ... but I think it's all 
basically art vs commerce at this point. They'd fix Harry Potter if 
Rowling asked for it. Wolfe is an award-winner, not a money-maker.

On 4/20/2011 11:47 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> On 4/19/2011 11:34 AM, DAVID STOCKHOFF wrote:
>> I've never really understood this problem. When you do a new edition, 
>> you change what feel you need to change, and that ought to include 
>> obvious errors. The copyright owner and publisher decide together, of 
>> course.
>>
>> It's not the technology. You make the changes, repaginate according 
>> to the format (size and length) of the new edition, slap a new cover 
>> on it, and print. This has been done at least semi-electronically for 
>> decades with increasing ease and still the typos remain, so it can't 
>> be blamed entirely on the fact that each new typesetting introduced 
>> new errors. It might depend on the file format of the "master" files, 
>> though, and who knows what that means for the Sun books.
>
> While this sort of thing is possible, chatter in the spec-fic forums 
> leads me to think it's often skipped or done with minimal amounts of 
> underinformed entry-level labor, as it can't be shown that any money 
> spent on fiddling typo corrections will sell more books.
>
>> Certainly a living author has to agree to these corrections (and it's 
>> difficult to convince a dead author), but this is something you see 
>> so often I can't believe Wolfe is very special in this regard. Maybe 
>> it's the agents who are to blame, or the lawyers. The Library of 
>> Congress doesn't care as long as you submit your paperwork (which is 
>> now done online).
>
> I'm not sure where the LC comes into it; since 1978, copyright vests 
> upon creation in a tangible form, and few typos aren't going to affect 
> what is a derivative work or not.
>


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