Asimov's Science Fiction: September 2013 by Penny Publications Page A
Authors: Penny Publications
Tags: Asimov's #452
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SCANDINAVIA, FRANK G. CARPENTER, 1923
THE DRUNK IN THE FURNACE, W.S. MERWIN, 1958
"Nothing from later than about 1960," she observed.
"Yeah," Fari said, "we think it's every book published in English before 1962."
"Oh." Shona was relieved. "So the copyrights have all expired, right?"
"Nope, that's common misconception. Copyright Extension Act of 2187. Books as far back as
Huck Finn
and
Uncle Tom's Cabin
are in copyright again."
Fari talked like everyone had been to college and knew what
Uncle Tom's Cabin
was. But anyway Shona knew what book she wanted to find. She ran a search, and there it was:
HALF MAGIC, EDWARD EAGER, 1954
She showed Billy.
"Oh, no."
"C'mon, you enjoyed it."
"She made me play pretend with her girlfriends every summer."
"We needed a boy to be Mark."
"Every summer for five years."
"You must have enjoyed the attention from all those girls," Fari said.
"Maybe at the end."
"When Binti started getting boobs," Shona said.
"When I started caring about girls. You know, I tried to get you a view of
Half Magic
for your birthday."
"Really? That was sweet of you, but it's been forever since you could get it."
"I know. I thought maybe I could use my connections. Dreamworks-HarperCollins bought it because they thought they had a good treatment, but when they started roughing out the marketing, it didn't work. Not enough international appeal, and it's hard to sell a story that's fantasy and set in the twentieth century. There's contemporary fantasy and medieval, but this one didn't categorize well."
"Why didn't they just put out the original book?"
"Well, if you do that, it messes things up if you want to do other media later. You want one big splash. They wouldn't make enough on text-only to pay for my boss to take the principals to lunch at Urusawa and order the omakase menu. Text-only is never a big revenue stream, because it takes hours and hours to read, so people almost never pay for a second view. And realistically, you couldn't just release the original version."
He was condescending. Shona felt her temper rising. "Why not?"
"Like, remember how there was that thing in the book about roller skates, and we had to look up what they were? And even then we got it wrong. We thought they were motorized. Stuff like that has to be modernized."
"That's ridiculous!" She was shouting now. "You pay money to snap up the copyright, and then you just sit on it forever and don't use it at all, so nobody benefits."
"It's not me personally. I told you, this was Dreamworks-HC. Look, it's just economics. There's an opportunity cost, and limited eyeballs per year that you can market to, and then—"
"Fuck you."
"What?" He seemed genuinely surprised.
"Just tell me what you want." She felt like she was going to cry. Fari put her hand on Shona's shoulder, but she shrugged it off. "What do you want?" she repeated.
"I'm sorry," Fari said. "The phone is part of the inheritance, but it's illegal as hell. We wanted to discuss it with you."
"So? Obviously you know what you want to do."
"We want to erase it and not tell anybody," Billy said.
Eleven million books. If they were paper, how much of a bonf ire would that be?
"All right, but first I want to read
Half Magic
one more time."
They acted relieved, but of course she wasn't going to let them erase the whole library. That would have been a crime—a real crime, not a law-book crime. While Billy and Fari spent the day watching elephants and water buffalo, Shona got a stage-prop replica of the phone printed. Holding one in the palm of each hand, the only way she could tell the inert copy from the original was that the plastic was still warm from the printer. To make sure she wouldn't mix them up, she used a fingernail to nick the dummy on the back while it was still curing.
When Bill and Fari got back that evening, she made a show out of stomping the copy under her heel and dropping it in a public cycler.
She didn't get a chance to read
Half Magic
again until
THE DRUNK IN THE FURNACE, W.S. MERWIN, 1958
"Nothing from later than about 1960," she observed.
"Yeah," Fari said, "we think it's every book published in English before 1962."
"Oh." Shona was relieved. "So the copyrights have all expired, right?"
"Nope, that's common misconception. Copyright Extension Act of 2187. Books as far back as
Huck Finn
and
Uncle Tom's Cabin
are in copyright again."
Fari talked like everyone had been to college and knew what
Uncle Tom's Cabin
was. But anyway Shona knew what book she wanted to find. She ran a search, and there it was:
HALF MAGIC, EDWARD EAGER, 1954
She showed Billy.
"Oh, no."
"C'mon, you enjoyed it."
"She made me play pretend with her girlfriends every summer."
"We needed a boy to be Mark."
"Every summer for five years."
"You must have enjoyed the attention from all those girls," Fari said.
"Maybe at the end."
"When Binti started getting boobs," Shona said.
"When I started caring about girls. You know, I tried to get you a view of
Half Magic
for your birthday."
"Really? That was sweet of you, but it's been forever since you could get it."
"I know. I thought maybe I could use my connections. Dreamworks-HarperCollins bought it because they thought they had a good treatment, but when they started roughing out the marketing, it didn't work. Not enough international appeal, and it's hard to sell a story that's fantasy and set in the twentieth century. There's contemporary fantasy and medieval, but this one didn't categorize well."
"Why didn't they just put out the original book?"
"Well, if you do that, it messes things up if you want to do other media later. You want one big splash. They wouldn't make enough on text-only to pay for my boss to take the principals to lunch at Urusawa and order the omakase menu. Text-only is never a big revenue stream, because it takes hours and hours to read, so people almost never pay for a second view. And realistically, you couldn't just release the original version."
He was condescending. Shona felt her temper rising. "Why not?"
"Like, remember how there was that thing in the book about roller skates, and we had to look up what they were? And even then we got it wrong. We thought they were motorized. Stuff like that has to be modernized."
"That's ridiculous!" She was shouting now. "You pay money to snap up the copyright, and then you just sit on it forever and don't use it at all, so nobody benefits."
"It's not me personally. I told you, this was Dreamworks-HC. Look, it's just economics. There's an opportunity cost, and limited eyeballs per year that you can market to, and then—"
"Fuck you."
"What?" He seemed genuinely surprised.
"Just tell me what you want." She felt like she was going to cry. Fari put her hand on Shona's shoulder, but she shrugged it off. "What do you want?" she repeated.
"I'm sorry," Fari said. "The phone is part of the inheritance, but it's illegal as hell. We wanted to discuss it with you."
"So? Obviously you know what you want to do."
"We want to erase it and not tell anybody," Billy said.
Eleven million books. If they were paper, how much of a bonf ire would that be?
"All right, but first I want to read
Half Magic
one more time."
They acted relieved, but of course she wasn't going to let them erase the whole library. That would have been a crime—a real crime, not a law-book crime. While Billy and Fari spent the day watching elephants and water buffalo, Shona got a stage-prop replica of the phone printed. Holding one in the palm of each hand, the only way she could tell the inert copy from the original was that the plastic was still warm from the printer. To make sure she wouldn't mix them up, she used a fingernail to nick the dummy on the back while it was still curing.
When Bill and Fari got back that evening, she made a show out of stomping the copy under her heel and dropping it in a public cycler.
She didn't get a chance to read
Half Magic
again until
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