Whats the story behind the 20 Years Of Heavy Metal CD-ROM collection being cancelled?
In late 1997 and early 1998, Heavy Metal advertised a CD-ROM collection that included every issue of the first 20 years. However in February 1998, after only a little over 50 copies had been sold, Heavy Metal stopped the selling of the CD-ROMs, due to controversial copyright reprinting laws. To understand why this happened, let’s first go back to 1976 when the Copyright Act was created. When this Copyright Act was created, it gave the publisher the right to archive material, as long as the material is shown as it originally was, in full, without editing. The publisher would not have to notify the artist, nor give them any compensation. However, because that law was put into place in 1976, it doesn’t clear up how to deal with today’s technology and the fact that new mediums can be very valuable. Fast forward to December 1993 when a group of writers under the National Writers Union sued The New York Times, Newsday, Sport Illustrated, Lexis/Nexis, and the UMI Company. This case was called
