EXAMINERS AND FRUITCAKES

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Gripes of Wrath

The publisher Penguin has (temporarily) lost the rights to The Grapes of Wrath and nine other works by John Steinbeck, following an action by his son and grandchild before the New York District Court, according to Bloomberg. The rights will revert to Penguin in 2014, under laws which allow heirs to renegotiate copyright assignments, though it sounds as if Penguin will appeal. Elaine Steinbeck, John Steinbeck's third wife, who died in 2003, opposed the action.

The IPKat can't understand how a battle between a dead author's deceased wife and his children almost 40 years after the author's death will help incentivise authors to create copyright works (which he understood was the purpose of granting generous copyright terms).