Sherlock Holmes Still In Public Domain After Ruling
The world of Sherlock Holmes remains in the public domain despite repeated efforts by late author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s estate to claim copyright, and according to the judge who handed down the ruling, they may be in violation of U.S. anti-trust laws.
As Time relates, 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner called the estate’s activities “a form of extortion” in his August 4 ruling:
“The Doyle estate’s business strategy is plain: charge a modest license fee for which there is no legal basis, in the hope that the ‘rational’ writer or publisher asked for the fee will pay it rather than incur a greater cost, in legal expenses, in challenging the legality of the demand.”
#Sherlock no scruff or..no scruff lol. Well yeah ? @inthepinktardis @WholockedLiv @Big_Sis1997 @SheRacheLocked pic.twitter.com/C5aolYEas0
— christina ?? Whovian (@DrWhoFiend) August 2, 2014
The dispute stems from a Sherlock Holmes anthology series that editor Leslie Klinger sought to publish last year. The Doyle estate sought to block publication unless it was paid a licensing fee for the use of the Holmes character, and the matter ended up in court. A judge ruled that all Sherlock Holmes stories published before 1923 were in the public domain, yet the estate appealed. In June 2014, Posner rejected the Doyle estate’s appeal:
“The spectre of perpetual, or at least nearly perpetual, copyright … looms, once one realizes that the Doyle estate is seeking 135 years (1887–2022) of copyright protection for the character of Sherlock Holmes as depicted in the first Sherlock Holmes story.”
More recently, Klinger sued the Doyle estate for reimbursement of legal fees. Io9 notes that Posner ruled in favor of Klinger, concluding that “In effect he was a private attorney general, combating a disreputable business practice—a form of extortion—and he is seeking by the present motion not to obtain a reward but merely to avoid a loss.” The Doyle estate was ordered to reimburse Klinger $69,803.37 in fees and costs.
Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes – first picture http://t.co/YzTjNhpfqF via @guardian pic.twitter.com/Am7Hbicvup — Elexu (@Elexu) July 26, 2014
In his ruling, Posner pointed out that the estate may have violated anti-trust laws in its attempts to preserve copyright over the world of Sherlock Holmes:
“We note finally that the estate was playing with fire in asking Amazon and other booksellers to cooperate with it in enforcing its nonexistent copyright claims against Klinger. For it was enlisting those sellers in a boycott of a competitor of the estate, and boycotts of competitors violate the anti-trust laws.”
As The Inquisitr has reported, numerous depictions of the fictional detective are slated for release in the near future. While the BBC’s Sherlock is gearing up for its fourth season with a one-off special, Ian McKellan is set to play an elderly version of Sherlock Holmes in an upcoming film, Mr. Holmes.
[Image via Comicvine]
