The (immortal) German state of Bavaria, it seems, claims and exercises ownership rights in respect of Adolf Hitler’s bestseller, Mein Kampf. Sixty-four years after the author’s death, this article in Haaretz recounts the prosecution in Poland of an entrepreneur who got 20,000 copies printed up, presumably in Polish.
Just what market it encountered in the first country the Nazis counquered in World War II (proper) isn’t mentioned.
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How exactly did Bavaria get the rights to the book?
It’s always irritating to see others publicly abuse the idea of private property by associating it with repugnance and defending it with anti-property means.
The 1925 book expresses Hitler’s disdain for his father, as well as his desire to exterminate Jews and occupy territory in Eastern Europe.
For some reason, reading that incredibly simple summary of the book in Haaretz feels very odd and distant.
yes the obvious question is quite pertinent: how did they get the copyrights? But most probably it is simply to be seen as a compensation for the inflicted damage to the population, a decision which would not shock anyone if it concerned an old can of Zyklon B stored on Hitler’s shelf.
This issue relates more to freedom of speech thus, since the Bavarians aim at preventing publishing…
On this account it should be forbidden for convicted criminals to publish the plan of a premeditated crime.
This is probably not the most shocking aspect of IP I would say.
I believe it is Hoppe who has advocated a libertarian society where foreign state servants would be banned from entry by law …
Haaretz would appear to be mistaken about Mein Kampf being “banned in Germany.” New and used copies (in German) are readily available on amazon.de. The author is Hitler, Adolf.
THIS would appear to be more of an intellectual-property issue, Haaretz’s suggestions otherwise notwithstanding.
Considering the fact that Germany destroyed a boatload of Santas since the waving arm was a little too straight, I’d be surprised if the book weren’t banned(Amazon likely doesn’t care so long as nobody raises a ruckus).
After WWII, the Allies confiscated Hitler’s assets, including copyrights of his books and other writings and gave it to Bavaria, where Hitler lived when writing “Mein Kampf”. All rights will expire in December 31 2015 (70 years after Hitler’s death).
Article: “His motive was profit, he said. ”
Scandalous! You mean people would pay money for a book, and he would sell them that book?
What is this world coming to? I’m just glad the government is here to take care of all this free market rabble.
Maybe they homesteaded them.
Hitler’s will decreed that apart from that which would give his remaining family a ‘middle-class’ standard of living, and the rest was to go to the Nazi Party, or (if that didn’t exist) the German Government. He said if that didn’t exist, there was no point making provisions in his will. The closest we get to Hitler’s will is the Federal German Government. If they wanted Bavaria to have it, that’s their business.
“At the time of his death, Hitler’s official place of residence was in Munich, which led to his entire estate, including all rights to Mein Kampf, changing to the ownership of the state of Bavaria. As per German copyright law, the entire text is scheduled to enter the public domain on December 31, 2015, just over 70 years after the author’s death.” — from Wikipedia.
Mein Kampf is banned in Poland. It’s a crime to publish this book. I wonder why they (gov) didn’t charge him as a nazi-publisher.
Take a look wonderful website about hitler http://www.naziat.org it is very good read chapter 4 to know more about Hitler hidden operation… Kalki Avatar.
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