Copyright and Abandonment

I am not a lawyer, but I've hung around with them far too long talking
about patents and copyrights.

One's inability to find or contact a copyright holder in no way
invalidates a copyright nor conveys any right to ignore the copyright.
Owners may abandon their rights, but this requires two essential
elements: (1) an intent to surrender all rights in the work; and (2) an
overt act evidencing that intent. As far as I know, only the owner can
abandon the copyright. This can be very problematic for "orphan" works,
where finding the current owner of a work really seems impossible.

The question then is if you violate the copyright on an orphaned work,
who is going to step forward to sue you for infringement, and how much
in damages will they be able to demonstrate? The risk of being sued is
one that each person needs to weigh independently.

The case under discussion in recent days however does not seem to fall
into this category. It should be quite straightforward to identify the
executor of the estate (it will be a matter of public record in the
county where the author of the program died) and request permission
from the executor to copy or purchase the rights to the program.

Roger Wiegand

 { But what if the author, John Miller, left no will? How is the
 [ executor determined? -- Robbie