Also consider age of death and jurisdictional issues.
For example Erle Stanley Gardener died in 1970. In a Life + 50 jurisdiction, his work go Public Domain, Jan 1, 2021. However, in Life + 70, it's 2041.
You can get into the situation where it's illegal for you to scan the work, but legal for somebody to post is in another jurisdiction. Sort of like the Hollywood blacklist, where a screenwriter couldn't work as a screenwriter, but did so anyway, using a front man...
And there are a lot of authors falling in this gap. Some examples -
Emilie Loring - Romance (died 1951) (all her non-ghosted - pre '51 are available for scanning in Life + 50.)
Zane Grey - American Westerns (died 1939) All of his works are available for scanning in Life + 50 and 70, but not all are scanned yet.
James Branch Cabell - fantasy (died 1958) Available for scanning in Life + 50. The same for most of American writers famous in the 1920's, H.L. Mencken, Joseph Hergseheimer, among others.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Lefevre - (died 1943) classic book about Jessie Livermore - Stock Speculator.
And on, And on....
Quite truthfully, you could spend a lifetime scanning P.D. works....
Last edited by Greg Anos; 10-11-2010 at 05:43 PM.
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