&gt;&quot;The move has a practical effect: It extends the copyright from Jan. 1, when it is set to expire in most of Europe, to the end of 2050. Copyrights in Europe generally end 70 years after an author’s death. Anne Frank died 70 years ago at Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp, and Otto Frank died in 1980. Extending the copyright would block others from being able to publish the book without paying royalties or receiving permission.&quot; (from nytimes article in OP) &#x2F;&#x2F;<p>Mr Frank of course has rights over the work he produced, but anything that Anne wrote will be out of copyright. Works representing the output of multiple persons needn&#x27;t be treated atomically AFAIA.<p>As a thought experiment: Something I find curious is what law - other than trespass - would prevent someone from getting hold of the original work and publishing it verbatim, it wouldn&#x27;t be a copyright infringement; I&#x27;m not sure it can truly be considered to theft. The criminal liability for entering and taking photos of a work that is out of copyright should rightly be very minor, the tort of trespass seems to be all that could be sued for.<p>If this stands the precedent set will surely see editors, typesetters and others claiming co-authorship of works such as out-of-copyright books and causing a further malevolent erosion of the public domain.