I am in search of stories from scholars of their experiences with copyright -- good, happy stories that will inspire others; sad, sad tales; personal experiences with literary executors; struggles with multimedia projects -- the whole range. I am trying to get a sense of exactly what scholars are facing with regard to copyright. We all hear the stories of Hemingway and the other famous examples -- Gone with the Wind, Peter Pan. What about others? What about merely situations where copyright is uncertain and so one doesn't proceed with a project? If you come across this post, and know of people who have stories to tell, please pass along my email or blog address -- elizabeth at townsend dot net. You are also welcome to post them as a comment.
I will be gathering these stories at my blog at the Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. For now, I am also still using academiccopyright.typepad.com
Example of stories from scholars:
1. A graduate student videotaped his lectures for a community college, only to be fired, and they then reused his lectures over and over.
2. A scholar decided not to pursue a project because of rumors of a literary executor that never granted permission.
3. Another scholar had to figure out many, many difficult images to find permissions for, and came up with clever ways of looking as if s/he had done so, when actually there was no way to find the copyright owner.
I am also in search of any literature that discusses these issues -- anything having to do with copyright and scholars. I already know of Byatt and Cameron's novels. If anyone knows of any others, I would greatly appreciate the suggestions.