Quote:
Originally Posted by owly
Oh, so if i understand correctly there are books that are exempt from the "author died before 1923" rule?
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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