Quote:
Originally Posted by Iphinome
pdurrant: This is the part that confuses me. I can't for the life of me figure out what it means. It seems to give 24 years starting in 1978 except for the part where it give at minimum 45 years for anything published before 2003 and says nothing about what happens after December 31'st 2002.
(a) Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302. In no case, however, shall the term of copyright in such a work expire before December 31, 2002; and, if the work is published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2047.
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I'd advise just using the table at
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/res...blicdomain.cfm as this is maintained by real lawyers who study this stuff.
The problem is that the laws are all amended and updated by various acts, so that following through everything is very hard. However, I'll give it a go for you. Note that it seems that some of the autobiography has been published (in 1959) so the unpublished works section might not apply. But for those bits where it does:
§303 (a) Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302
Now, we're assuming unpublished and uncopyrighted. If it was already in the public domain it remains in the public domain. So that tells us that the term is that provided in section §302
§302 (a) In General.— Copyright [...] endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death.
So - the copyright term is life+70, except for the provision in §303
§303 (a) [...] In no case, however, shall the term of copyright in such a work expire before December 31, 2002
But since we're now in 2010, this doesn't affect us.
The last point you raises concerns the last part of 303 (a):
§303 (a) [...] and, if the work is published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2047.
But we're assuming that the work was not published before 2003, so this section doesn't affect us either.
The intention of this sections seems to have been to encourage the publication of unpublished posthumous works, to get copyright protection for them until 2047. But after the end of 2002, this special provision has no effect, and posthumous publications gain no extra copyright above life+70.
HTH