Image: flickr.com
Publish a book, song, even a recipe and your estate retains copyright for 70 years after you die. But what if you leave the work in your bottom drawer?
Then the copyright lasts forever. As a result, millions of old manuscripts, letters, old diaries, company records and even recipes are locked away under perpetual copyright – arguably for no one’s benefit. These works may not have been deemed worth publishing in the lifetime of the author but many years on they form important documents of social history.
