Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I don't think that it's retroactive. The length of time of the renewal, which occurs in the final year of the original copyright, is whatever the length of time was when the renewal occurs. So the renewal term for a work that was originally copyrighted in 1968 and renewed in 1995 was 47 years, the renewal term for a work copyrighted in 1971 and renewed in 1998 was 67 years (assuming my math is correct). That is my understanding of how it works. There was a matrix of how long copyrights lasted and it was fairly complex. Wish I could find it again, because it was fairly complex with a lot of if's.
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It applied to any work still in copyright.
I suspect that this is the table you found previously:
https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain
Yes, it's very complex. But your understanding of it is incorrect.
The particular line that applies from the Cornell table is
1924 through 1963 : Published with notice and the copyright was renewed : 95 years after publication date
But if you prefer sources from the US government, that
same leaflet you linked to says this about works that had already had their copyright renewed (bold added):
"Works originally copyrighted after 1922 and
renewed before
1978. These works were automatically given a longer copyright
term. Copyrights that had already been renewed and
were in their second term at any time between December 31,
1976, and December 31, 1977, inclusive, do not need to be
renewed again.
They have been automatically extended to
last for a total term of 95 years (a first term of 28 years plus a
renewal term of 67 years) from the end of the year in which
they were originally secured."