Andre Norton in the public domain?

[owly]

How come some of her books are in the public domain?

[AnemicOak]

Copyright Information


Some or all works by this author are in the public domain in the United States because they are legally published within the United States (or the United Nations Headquarters in New York subject to Section 7 of the United States Headquarters Agreement) before 1964, and copyright was not renewed. For Class A renewals records (books only) published between 1923 and 1963, check the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database and the Rutgers copyright renewal records. For other renewal records of publications between 1922 - 1950 see the Pennsylvania copyright records scans. For all records since 1978, search the U.S. Copyright Office records.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is imperative that contributors search the renewal databases and ascertain that there is no evidence of a copyright renewal before using this license. Failure to do so will result in the deletion of the work as a copyright violation.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Andre_Norton

[crossi]

This current system where you must look in multiple sources within the same country is ridiculous. Why don't they consolidate all these sources and have one national database for all copyrights in this country?

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by crossi

This current system where you must look in multiple sources within the same country is ridiculous. Why don't they consolidate all these sources and have one national database for all copyrights in this country?

You going to pay for it... work like that doesn't come for nothing...

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by crossi

This current system where you must look in multiple sources within the same country is ridiculous. Why don't they consolidate all these sources and have one national database for all copyrights in this country?

Costs, time, effort, and lack of priority.

[owly]

Oh, so if i understand correctly there are books that are exempt from the "author died before 1923" rule?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by owly

Oh, so if i understand correctly there are books that are exempt from the "author died before 1923" rule?

Yes.
They were out of copyright *before* the new regime came into effect.
There seems to be quite a bit of (very good) 50's SF that fell into that category. From authors like Piper, Farmer, Nourse, and Norton herself among others.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by owly

Oh, so if i understand correctly there are books that are exempt from the "author died before 1923" rule?

There is no author died before 1923 rule. The US has a published before 1923 rule. The author died rule in the US is "never published, or first published in 1978 or later and author died before 1942."

First published or registered in 1964 to 1977 the copyright is 95 years from first publication or registration.

First published or registered in 1923 to 1963 and the length of copyright is either 28 years or 95 years depending on if a renewal was filed in a timely manner by the correct entity. Anything without the renewal, that had the 28 year copyright has expired already. A renewal is an R or RE filing with the copyright office, not just publishing again and asking for a new copyright.

In countries other than the US the author died rule is usually author died before 1942 or author died before 1962. In author died countries the date advances year for year. Australia is in transition from death+50 to death+70 so it does not have the date advancing. There are other countries with exceptions as well. In Canada the first publication date matters if the work is first published after the author has died. In that case the date is first publication + 50 years.

Probably more than anyone wants to know about copyright, but copyright is loaded with exceptions. No two countries are the same, and the US is one of the countries with the most weirdness. The details matter, even if they make your eyes glaze over.

Here is a table with a more complete list of the US exceptions:
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

The US is not advancing it's public domain year for year and hasn't for a very long time. It won't start again until 2019.

Greg Weeks

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Yes.
They were out of copyright *before* the new regime came into effect.
There seems to be quite a bit of (very good) 50's SF that fell into that category. From authors like Piper, Farmer, Nourse, and Norton herself among others.

There is a lot of material period, it's just that I have a specific interest in SF.

Greg Weeks

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by crossi

This current system where you must look in multiple sources within the same country is ridiculous. Why don't they consolidate all these sources and have one national database for all copyrights in this country?

The US has official online copyright records for works from 01 Jan 1978. Before then, you either have to visit the Library of Congress in Wash DC or pay them an hourly rate to search for you.

[owly]

Thanks! In Sweden it's 70 years after the authors death.

[Phogg]

Meh

Monkey said it already

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

The US has official online copyright records for works from 01 Jan 1978. Before then, you either have to visit the Library of Congress in Wash DC or pay them an hourly rate to search for you.

The Catalog of Copyright Entries published by the copyright office before 1978 is available at most depository libraries and has scanned copies of most volumes available online. It's sufficient for many searches. It does not have all of the information for an entry that the index cards at the copyright office has. The big missing piece that I remember is the address of the filer.

Greg Weeks

[morantis]

It is a matter of release manner.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by owly

Thanks! In Sweden it's 70 years after the authors death.

There is also the Rule of the Shorter Term, which means that if it is a US work and is out of copyright in the US, then it is out of copyright here in the EU (but not vice versa, because the US doesn't seem to have this provision). I think that means that the Andre Norton works are out of copyright here, too.

What I'm not so sure about is whether that means something that was first published (and copyrighted) in the US, or only published (and copyrighted) in the US. (Reading that wikipedia article, it does look as though it is first published.)