S&S Lock In for Lifetime?

A story is developing in regards to publishers revising the standard contract length, with Simon & Schuster now moving towards locking in the rights to a book for the full term of copyright. The Author's Guild have taken exception to this move, pointing out that under the new agreement S&S would be able to stop printing a book at their own discretion, and prevent the author from publishing it with any other house. Agents are siding with the Guild.

This new development is no doubt a reaction from S&S to the growing markets of electronic formats and Print on Demand, which allow for continued profits even when the market for the book has diminished below the break even point for offset print runs (especially with the sizeable catalogues that larger publishers would have access to). It would be hoped that all authors understand this - or if not, are made aware of this - before entering into a 'lifetime' contract, because there could well be a case made for authors pursuing PoD and electronic routes themselves - due to greater returns over a standard book publishing contract - once the life of a standard book contract has expired.