Quote:
Originally Posted by pynch
I doubt, too, that it is easy to find for free, but it actually is public domain in many countries!
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I don't see why the text of the original uncensored manuscript should remain in copyright anywhere. In this country unpublished anonymous works, pseudonymous works, and works made for hire are protected for 120 years from date of creation. That would cover those unpublished portions of
The Picture of Dorian Gray until 2010, but the estate still claims an ongoing copyright, which is claimed on "the
typescript of The Picture of Dorian Gray." Did Oscar Wilde use a typewriter? I don't believe very many were in use in the late nineteenth century. If it's a typed script from a handwritten original not available to the general public, then it's the typed script which is copyrighted, at least in the United States and those countries that adhere to international copyright treaties such as the Berne Convention. The only other way I see they could still lay claim to copyright is to say that some unpublished portions were written after 1883, which I don't believe they do. So as I said, the original uncensored manuscript should be out of copyright, but good luck getting your hands on it to make a copy. I suspect the heirs of Oscar Wilde guard it with great vigilance.