Quote:
Originally Posted by Richwood
For fiction I think that 20 years w/o renewal is the way to go unless an item is kept continuously in print or available in electronic form. If popular enough to still be in print after 20 years then allow a single 20 year renewal. What percentage of fiction books or short stories remain in print for any where near that long? 1% or so maybe? The original version of "Lord Of The Rings" lost USA copyright due to not being published here and having too many British copies imported per copyright law at the time.
I remember as ACE Books printed an unauthorized version here circa 1967 or so. The first version I bought and read. The author revised things enough to get a new USA copyright and a contract with Ballantine as I recall for the "authorized edition".
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I think a copyright needs to been a length of time. So we can know if something is public domain or not. 20 years only if it's not in print or eBook is not going to work. We won't know if it's PD or not. Something like life+50 or just 50 years are time spans we can use look up to see if the work is PD or not.