Usually we are using a 70-years after death policy. Is this policy the same for russian/soviet authors? Well, before you say "Sure. Stupid question." let me provide some more informations:
- In 1974 the USSR joined the Universal Copyright Convention with a term of copyright of 50 years.
- In 2004 russia modified the copyright law and uses a term of copyright of 70 years since then.
I'm a little bit unsure now because i got different informations here in germany:
Some public institutions told me "50 years if the work was already public domain in 2004", other institutions gave me different informations.
Additionally i found a discussion of wikipedia authors who were unsure on this topic too. They decided to use a 70-year policy until they will get clear instructions by a copyright lawyer.
Are works that were older than 50 years before russia started using a term of copyright of 70 years public domain (in Canada and as well in Germany)? Or does the change of copyright law in 2004 apply retroactively - even for works that were already public domain according to the law from 1974?
Any help will be very appreciated...