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[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Re: Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light



It's up on Amazon now too.

Bravo, thanks for following up and letting us know.

[pwalker8]

I picked up Fletcher Pratt's Well of the Unicorn this weekend, written in 1948. Pratt died before I was born, and I'm almost retirement age, so it could very well be that Well of the Unicorn entered PD this year. It hasn't hit Gutenberg yet though. Either way, it was an orphaned work. I've got an old paper copy of the book from Ballantine. I think it was part of their Adult Fantasy series. A lot of those books are in my list of books I want as ebooks. (Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain and Munn's Merlin series come to mind)

[pdurrant]

Fletcher Pratt died in 1956. In life+50 countries, all his books are in the public domain. In life+70 countries, they will be in the public domain on 1st January 2027.

In the USA, Well of the Unicorn was published in 1948, with copyright renewed in 1975, so it will be in the public domain in the USA on 1st January 2044. Only 25 years to go!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Fletcher Pratt died in 1956. In life+50 countries, all his books are in the public domain. In life+70 countries, they will be in the public domain on 1st January 2027.

In the USA, Well of the Unicorn was published in 1948, with copyright renewed in 1975, so it will be in the public domain in the USA on 1st January 2044. Only 25 years to go!

Copyright law in the US is a bit more complex than that. Works that were originally copyrighted prior to 1978 are treated differently than works copyrighted after 1978.

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf

Basically, for books copyrighted prior to 1978, they are covered by an initial 28 year copyright period and if renewed, get an extra 47 years rather than the 1909 standard 28 years.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Copyright law in the US is a bit more complex than that. Works that were originally copyrighted prior to 1978 are treated differently than works copyrighted after 1978.

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf

Basically, for books copyrighted prior to 1978, they are covered by an initial 28 year copyright period and if renewed, get an extra 47 years rather than the 1909 standard 28 years.

USA copyright law is indeed complex. You have forgotten the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998. This increased the renewal term to 67 years. (And made renewal automatic for works that had not already come up for renewal.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

USA copyright law is indeed complex. You have forgotten the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998. This increased the renewal term to 67 years. (And made renewal automatic for works that had not already come up for renewal.)

No, the link I gave is from the US Copyright website. That's what it said. My assumption is the information they post there is accurate.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

No, the link I gave is from the US Copyright website. That's what it said. My assumption is the information they post there is accurate.

From the document you linked to (bold added):

"The 1976 Copyright Act carried over the system in the 1909 Copyright Act for computing copyright duration for works protected by federal statute before January 1, 1978, with one major change: the length of the renewal term was increased to 47 years. The 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act increased the renewal term another 20 years to 67 years."

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

From the document you linked to (bold added):

"The 1976 Copyright Act carried over the system in the 1909 Copyright Act for computing copyright duration for works protected by federal statute before January 1, 1978, with one major change: the length of the renewal term was increased to 47 years. The 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act increased the renewal term another 20 years to 67 years."

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.

[pdurrant]

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.

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."

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

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."

If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. Won't be the first time, won't be the last.

Yes, that's the document that I was talking about, Thanks for finding it. It spells things out in great detail. You are correct about the Well of the Unicorn. No idea if the Pratt book is someone taking advantage of orphaned works, or if whomever holds the copyright has decided to put of some of his books. Quite a few of his non fiction work showed up.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

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."

In agreement.

Which is why 1923 works just entered the public domain this January 1st, 2019.

[pwalker8]

Looks like Lin Carter's Gondwane series, i.e. the World's End series, is starting to appear in the Kindle store. Lin Carter, who died back in 1988, was the classic b-list fantasy author who probably had more of an impact as a editor rather than as an author. The World's End series was more of a semi-comic Sword and Blunder series with the muscle bound hero being the classic Conan take off. Not exactly great literature, but like a lot of pulp novels, a fun read that doesn't take itself very seriously. I remember reading them way back in my youth.

[HarryT]

Most of Carter's work is available for people outside the US from SF Gateway, but this particular series appears not be to.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Most of Carter's work is available for people outside the US from SF Gateway, but this particular series appears not be to.

Interesting, I suspect it might show up at some point. So far, I only see the first two books available on Amazon.

The publisher on Amazon is listed as Thunderchild, which is one of those companies that is republishing "vintage" SF&F and naval books, I assume ebooks.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Looks like Lin Carter's Gondwane series, i.e. the World's End series, is starting to appear in the Kindle store. Lin Carter, who died back in 1988, was the classic b-list fantasy author who probably had more of an impact as a editor rather than as an author. The World's End series was more of a semi-comic Sword and Blunder series with the muscle bound hero being the classic Conan take off. Not exactly great literature, but like a lot of pulp novels, a fun read that doesn't take itself very seriously. I remember reading them way back in my youth.

I read his Conan pastiche novels, and his Scifi Callisto series that was a bit of a John Carter ERB knock off. Fun reads all.