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Hitler's Copyright

  • 24-06-2013 9:51pm
    #1
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭


    At the risk of hitting Godwin's law at the get go,
    Is Mein Kampf still under copyright? as the mustachioed Austrian only died 68 years ago?


Comments

  • #2
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,315 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    The State of Bavaria holds the copyright and it expires in 2015.


  • #3
    NoQuarter
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,632 ✭✭✭NoQuarter


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    At the risk of hitting Godwin's law at the get go,
    Is Mein Kampf still under copyright? as the mustachioed Austrian only died 68 years ago?

    Copyright is life +70 in most circumstances.


  • #4
    johnnyskeleton
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 14,549 Mod ✭✭✭✭johnnyskeleton


    Can it be used for historical and educational purposes? It's hardly of any literary or philosophical value to anyone?


  • #5
    the_syco
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 37,316 ✭✭✭✭the_syco


    johnnyskeleton wrote: »
    Can it be used for historical and educational purposes? It's hardly of any literary or philosophical value to anyone?
    The copyright will be extended. This would allow someone to ban certain people from printing it en masse?


  • #6
    johnnyskeleton
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 14,549 Mod ✭✭✭✭johnnyskeleton


    the_syco wrote: »
    The copyright will be extended. This would allow someone to ban certain people from printing it en masse?

    You'd have to think that the actual number of neo nazis and such that would sit down (and be able) to read it are quote few in number. Mostly, it would be history students trying to get an insight into his thoughts.


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  • #7
    Cody Pomeray
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,648 ✭✭✭Cody Pomeray


    This copyright question only really matters in Germany, and even then the dissemination of Nazi propaganda will remain illegal under that country's laws. The question is whether, or for how long, Mein Kampf will remain propaganda, or when it will morph into a replicable historical artifact.

    Obviously, you can buy Mein Kampf in Easons, etc. so this doesn't concern irish people at all.


  • #8
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    NoQuarter wrote: »
    Copyright is life +70 in most circumstances.
    These are hardly most circumstances though....

    I'm just wondering if the copyright was quashed, to prevent Hitlers heirs profitting from sales, or if the copyright was expropriated, and if it was by who?

    If the copyright in a certain EU state is extended, does that apply to all eu states? or EEA states or extra EEA states, such as say Paraguay?

    I hadn't thought of the restrictions on sales in a country benefit of keeping copyright.

    I'm thinking about some speeches also, if his heirs had copyright then they would only be allowed to be repoduced under fair dealing rules, which are really restrictive here, unlike fair use rules across the pond.


    Of course the heirs may not have the chutzpah to ask for compo for unauthorised copying.



    This whole thread is half inspired by the Archangel novel about some secret diaries of Joe Stalin. we reckoned a non-soviet legal system might have some more clarity than the soviet one when talking about it


  • #9
    NoQuarter
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,632 ✭✭✭NoQuarter


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    These are hardly most circumstances though....

    What? That doesn't even make sense. I said copyright is life +70 in most circumstances as I didnt want to say copyright is life +70 simpliciter and be corrected in the case of databases or the like.

    Mein Kampf is a literary work, which is life +70. So it is, in fact, "most circumstances" as you so convolutedly put it.


  • #10
    Cody Pomeray
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,648 ✭✭✭Cody Pomeray


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    I'm just wondering if the copyright was quashed, to prevent Hitlers heirs profitting from sales, or if the copyright was expropriated, and if it was by who?
    AFAIK Hitler has no "known" heirs, in the sense that they may exist but have made no claim. Wasn't there, at one time, a substantial fortune ready to be collected by anyone who was his heir, and nobody came forward?


  • #11
    Ken.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,898 ✭✭✭✭Ken.


    I recall seeing a documentary a few years ago about the last 2 remaining Hitler brothers. They were well into their 70's at the time and they had never married and had vowed never to father a child so the line would die with them.


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  • #12
    Beano
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,357 ✭✭✭Beano


    Carawaystick wrote: »
    These are hardly most circumstances though....

    I'm just wondering if the copyright was quashed, to prevent Hitlers heirs profitting from sales, or if the copyright was expropriated, and if it was by who?

    this was answered earlier in the thread


  • #13
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    NoQuarter wrote: »
    What? That doesn't even make sense. I said copyright is life +70 in most circumstances as I didnt want to say copyright is life +70 simpliciter and be corrected in the case of databases or the like.

    Mein Kampf is a literary work, which is life +70. So it is, in fact, "most circumstances" as you so convolutedly put it.

    Hitler was a fairly extraordinary person though, and I was wondering if there were different principles in play, as there are restrictions on third reich stuff in Germany and Austria.
    Also in Britain there is a different copyright regime for Peter Pan .

    But it seems like the state of Bayern has the copyright til 2015 just like any other punter who died in 1945


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