Out of Copyright question

[KyBunnies]

I was wondering if old hymnals lose the copyright attached to them. I have some dating back to the mid 1850's.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question.

[KyBunnies]

Yes I found this is the wrong place but I do not know how to delete my post. Sorry

[DaleDe]

Hymnals obey the same copyrights as other books. You do need to consider both the person who did the music and the person who did the lyrics. 1850 is plenty old enough. If you want to post them on MobileRead you need to consider the death of the authors (music and lyrics) plus 70 years.

[KyBunnies]

Thanks DaleDe. Since some of mine go back to the 1850's I am guessing no one is around any longer. I just wanted to make sure. Sorry for putting this question in the wrong place.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

...If you want to post them on MobileRead you need to consider the death of the authors (muscic and lyrics) plus 70 years.

... plus, you need to consider the death of the author of any introduction, preface, ... that appears in the volume.

[mrmikel]

Originally Posted by dwig

... plus, you need to consider the death of the author of any introduction, preface, ... that appears in the volume.

If you include them. You don't have to unless it seems needful.

There have been several books lately whose contents have been out of copyright for years, but they have added a new introduction. Only the introduction is in copyright, not the content.

[Greg Anos]

And you may choose to write your own introduction. If you want the new introduction to also be in the publuic domain, mention that in the introduction...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by KyBunnies

I was wondering if old hymnals lose the copyright attached to them. I have some dating back to the mid 1850's.

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this question.

I don't think any country has a perpetual copyright. The question is when the copyright expires. This varies from country to country.

If the author died more than 70 years ago, the work will be out of copyright nearly* everywhere, and is eligible for upload to MobileRead.

1850? Well, suppose one of the hymns was by a new hymn writer aged 20 in 1850. If even if she lived to be 110, then she'd have died in 1940, and the work would now be out of copyright.

I think you're pretty safe in assuming that any book published in 1850 is now in the public domain.



*it may still be in copyright in the few countries that have a longer copyright (e.g. Mexico) or special terms (e.g. US)

[KyBunnies]

Okay thanks everyone. I will try and slowly scan all of them.