Quote:
Originally Posted by bgalbrecht
I don't know UK vs US copyright law, but I did see one book, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Door Through Space, which is out of copyright in the US because it didn't get renewed, but the author died less than 70 years ago, so I would have expected it to be in copyright in the UK unless they have some sort of clause that says that if it's public domain in the author's country, it's PD in the UK as well.
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I just don't know.
What I do know is that U.S. copyright law is very complicated. I saw a flowchart recently of how to figure out whether or not a book is still in copyright in the U.S. It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to be able to understand it all and use it. However, what I have heard from several reliable (to one degree or another) sources is that anything copyrighted in the U.S. prior to 1923 is definitely out of copyright, no matter what.
I've heard that changes are being made to the U.S. copyright laws to simplify them and to shorten the maximum time that something can stay in copyright. That will be much welcome. But I don't see why countries can't get together and make treaties to have copyright laws consistent between them, so as to avoid the questions like the offer that I posted. After all, countries get together and make international treaties all of the time about other things, But maybe I'm pollyannaish.
