Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She also wrote six romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best known for the 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections she wrote under her own name, most of which revolve around the investigations of such characters as Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Parker Pyne, Harley Quin/Mr Satterthwaite, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. She wrote the world's longest-running play, The Mousetrap.[1] Born into a wealthy upper-middle-class family in Torquay, Devon, Christie served in a hospital during the First World War, before marrying and starting a family in London. She was initially unsuccessful at getting her work published; but in 1920 The Bodley Head press published her novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring the character of Hercule Poirot. This launched her literary career. Life and career[edit] Death[edit]
Sherlock Holmes: 'A study in copyright'
"It's a bogus argument. It means you can reprint Conan Doyle's own stories freely but you can't make up a new story? It doesn't make logical sense," said author Leslie Klinger, who brought the case against the Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. to settle the matter. With last week's ruling in hand, Klinger plans to finish work on "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes," a book of original short stories featuring characters and other elements from Conan Doyle's work. He is coediting the book with plans to publish this fall. If appeals judges hold it up, the ruling could lift the threat of legal action for the untold scores of writers out there churning out pastiches and fan fiction without permission. "Whatever decision they make will essentially determine the fate of many characters, not just Sherlock Holmes and Dr. "At the very least it's going to affect the bargaining power as to what the estate can do in trying to sell it to the studio," Supnik said.
Hercule Poirot
Overview[edit] Influences[edit] Poirot's name was derived from two other fictional detectives of the time: Marie Belloc Lowndes' Hercule Popeau and Frank Howel Evans' Monsieur Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer living in London.[1] A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle. Poirot was a francophone. Popularity[edit] By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot "insufferable", and by 1960 she felt that he was a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep". Appearance and propinquities[edit] Captain Arthur Hastings' first description of Poirot: He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Agatha Christie's initial description of Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express: In the later books, his limp is not mentioned, suggesting it may have been a temporary wartime injury.
Do you really LOVE copyright? A Katcontest for younger copyright enthusiasts
This Kat will be speaking at the forthcoming Copyright and Technology Conference, that will be held in London on 17 October 2013. The organisers have just informed her that she can invite one lucky person to attend the conference for free, instead of having to pay the £249 registration fee. Mindful of the fact that younger copyright enthusiasts with limited financial support from their own organisations might find ... let's just say "challenging" to attend these sorts of events, this Kat has decided to donate her own complimentary ticket to the creative soul who will complete the following stanza in the most original (not just for the sake of copyright protection!) and amusing (at least according to peculiarly feline sense of humour) way: Roses are red, Violets are blue, Copyright is ... This is not the only good news. This means that two lucky copyright enthusiasts will be able to attend this great event. Good luck!
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in 12 of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in 20 short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. Alongside Hercule Poirot, she is one of the most loved and famous of Christie's characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen. Her first appearance was in a short story published in The Sketch magazine in 1926, "The Tuesday Night Club",[1] which later became the first chapter of The Thirteen Problems (1932). Her first appearance in a full-length novel was in The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930. Origins[edit] There is no definitive source for the derivation of the name 'Marple'.[4] The most common explanation is that the name was taken from Marple railway station in Stockport, through which Christie passed. Character[edit] Miss Marple solves difficult crimes because of her shrewd intelligence, and St. Films[edit]
Free Sherlock! | Holmes belongs to the world
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was widely disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Within the crime case files as well as journalistic accounts the killer was known as "the Whitechapel Murderer" as well as "Leather Apron". Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper. Background Murders Smith was robbed and sexually assaulted on Osborn Street, Whitechapel, on 3 April 1888. Canonical five
The (latest) adventures of Sherlock Holmes: a small win for the public domain
We investigate the District Court of Illinois decision Klinger v Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd., confirming that literary characters can be freely used without a licence where copyright has expired on early works in a series. Character elements introduced in later works which are still subject to copyright cannot be used without a licence. Click here to view the image. “The Man with the Twisted Lip” by Sidney Paget, published in the December 1891 edition of The Strand Magazine, from Wikimedia Commons. Leslie Klinger, a Sherlock Holmes expert and editor of a series of new Holmes stories, sought a declaration from the District Court of Illinois that there was no need for him to obtain a copyright licence to use the characters of Holmes and Doctor Watson in his new book. In Australia and most of Europe, all the Sherlock Holmes stories are already in the public domain. In other words, the position is elementary, dear reader! The Conan Doyle estate plans to appeal.
