I have several thousand books from the 80's and 90's. Very few are available. Consider one example:
"Mastering The MFC for Windows 95 using Symantec C++" by Richard Parker published by Thomson Computer Press.
It's long out of print, and I wished to make it available to my customers. I contacted the author, he was all for it, but said he didn't have the rights, I'd have to contact the publisher.
The publisher is out of business. I could find nothing on who owned the rights. Dead ends everywhere I looked.
So everybody loses. The author, the publisher, me, and my customers.
BTW, there is one used copy for sale on amazon for $14,763.21:
"Mastering The MFC for Windows 95 using Symantec C++" by Richard Parker published by Thomson Computer Press.
It's long out of print, and I wished to make it available to my customers. I contacted the author, he was all for it, but said he didn't have the rights, I'd have to contact the publisher.
The publisher is out of business. I could find nothing on who owned the rights. Dead ends everywhere I looked.
So everybody loses. The author, the publisher, me, and my customers.
BTW, there is one used copy for sale on amazon for $14,763.21:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Mfc-Windows-Using-Symantec/d...