The Public Domain Enhancement Actreclaiming james joyce
June 01, 2004
Ireland is poised to pass the Copyright and Related Rights (Amendment) Bill 2004, that "will remove any doubt as to the right of any person to place literary or artistic works protected by copyright or copies thereof on public exhibition without committing a breach of copyright", according to an explanatory memorandum of the legislation.
Why? To ensure that a major exhibition of James Joyce's work at the National Library can proceed despite threats from the author's grandson. Turns out the government owns the manuscripts they want to exhibit, but the grandson own's the copyrights--- copyrights that ran out on December 31st, 1991, 50 years after Joyce's death but were revived by EU regulations in July 1995 when it extended the lifetime of copyright to 70 years after an author's death.
This is what Kahle vs. Ashcroft is about.