Lost work

I completely agree with Richard Boyle. In the interview conducted by NPR Boyle stated that even though a book is out of print, the publishers are closed, and the author has passed then why can’t the book be open to everyone online? There is no money to be made out of someone obtaining a copy of the book so there should be no reason that it cannot be available. The only way to access the book is to search through all the catalogs of the Library of Congress and request to view a hard copy, which can be a long and arduous process. The only reason one cannot access the book through easier means is the ever powerful law of copyright. They refuse to digitize the book due to copyright infringement. The law stands for 70 year after the death of the author. Most material printed and copyrighted long ago in the past will not last this long. Most of the materials sitting in the library of congress will disintegrate instead of being saved by digitizing them. This law is taken too literally to protect the works at the risk of them being lost. Once these works are lost the authors work seems to go to waste since no one is able to enjoy it anymore. It just seems absurd that this law lasts this long. It’s a shame that the law will let these works be lost in the name to “protect” the work from it being stolen.

-TBC