From: Iris Brest <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 21:41:40 +0000

Assuming that Mr. Frank's changes created a copyrightable work
distinct from Anne Frank's original, has the original ever been
published?  If not, when does it fall into the public domain, and who
has access to enough information to determine what the original work
actually is?

Iris Brest

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From: LibLicense-L Discussion Forum
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Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 4:37 PM
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Subject: Co-authoring and copyright

From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2015 08:59:16 -0700

Some will have seen this in the New York Times:

Anne Frank’s Diary Gains ‘Co-Author’ in Copyright Move

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/books/anne-frank-has-a-co-as-diary-gains-co-author-in-legal-move.html

The narrow question is whether her father's editorial intervention
entitles him to status as co-author and thus extends copyright to 70
years past his death (in 1980); otherwise the work would go into the
public domain this year.  There are other issues, not least the
competition between two foundations, one in Basel, one in Amsterdam,
the latter of which has been planning a web edition of the diary, open
access, to appear when the copyright expires.  The father's foundation
in Basel that owns the copyright supports work to eradicate prejudice
and racism and offers medical support for holocaust survivors and
surviving individuals who protected Jews in Nazi times.  I can find
only a German wikipedia article:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank-Fonds

So there conflicting legal and ethical views of this.  I would offer a
strategic question.  For the years 2015-2050 (the extension based on
the father's date of death), what advances the beneficial effect to be
gotten from this near-miraculous survival of a text that has meant
much to many:  the dedicated application of the foundation's profits
or the extended audience for the book?  I am persuaded for the latter,
mainly because I worry so much about the disappearance from cultural
view of much of the heritage of the 20th century if we do not succeed
in making the books of the 40s, 50s, 60s available in networked
digital form.  Does an author's estate do the author and his/her work
more good by collecting royalties or by making the work more widely
known and accessible?  Even Anne Frank could be forgotten:  what would
prevent that most effectively?

Jim O'Donnell
ASU