More grumbling about out-of-print media

[mtbc]

Recently, in discussing other-media spin-offs, I was reminded of the three trilogies of Babylon 5 novels, which were decent enough that I would be happy to reread them. However, they are long enough out of print to be enough effort and money to obtain that I shan't bother. It seems a shame that such things just fade away.

Back when I first read them, I hadn't appreciated how that kind of book, like most manga, falls out of print, never to be reprinted. I don't know what ethicists might think but I would be quite open to a rule that put into the public domain any work that was once openly and widely available then was not similarly reoffered for a long period, assuming no conflict with the public interest.

Comments

[aldabra]

They are probably in the Cambridge University Library. They don't appear to be in the Edinburgh university library (Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Library are the only ones which actually claim all the things they're entitled to under copyright law) but they should be inter-library-loanable for not very much, if you're working near enough a library to visit it in lunchbreaks.

I tried digging out a book from my youth on the UL online e-book system and it turned out it had been down for months, as well as requiring you to be physically in the library to interface to it. I too had not appreciated how ephemeral books are.

[aldabra]

The CUSFS library is now held by the UL, though I don't know whether they've catalogued it.

[mtbc]

Ha, goodness, they must be full of all manner of stuff, I hadn't thought about that. On my normal walk to the office, I pass the main branch of the normal Edinburgh library system, which is where I borrowed Credo, plus the National library which has, er, the kinds of things that aren't related to Babylon 5.

[thewayne]

I agree. And then the publisher cries out 'But we're planning a Xth anniversary reprint, you can't Public Domain it!' Yeah, right. Sure you were.