Copywrite challenged over James Joyce

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Stanford University attorneys in California are suing James Joyce's grandson for the right to use the author's work to document a book about his daughter.

Stanford English professor Carol Loeb Shloss claims under copyright law she has the right to use Joyce's writings for her story about James and Nora Joyce's daughter who was institutionalized in a mental ward. Shloss proposes that Lucia was sane.

Lucia Joyce was the subject of "Finnegan's Wake," so Shloss needed to quote from letters between father and daughter, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Copyright law permits authors to use works "for purposes of commentary and criticism," a provision called "fair use." But Stephen Joyce, who lives in France, forbade Schloss from using the materials, threatening to sue.

"Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake," was published in 2003, but its publisher deleted much information, causing critics to say it lacked evidence. Schloss wants to put that information on the Internet.

The outcome of the lawsuit might affect not only copyright law, but books, art and film.

"The works of a famous person, after they die, are more than the property of a grandchild," said attorney David Olson of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. "They are the heritage of the larger world."