[Foundation-l] [Ticket#: 126217-FW] Emily Dickinson poems

Fri May 27 17:42:24 UTC 2005

MHart wrote:

> Works published prior to Jan 1, 1923, that had a copyright notice, 
> enter the public domain in 75 years. ALL works published prior to 1930 
> are now in the public domain. If they didn't have a copyright notice, 
> then they immediately entered the public domain. 

The Sonny Bono extension changed this period to 95 years.  The 75 year 
period now applies only to libraries and archives for works that are not 
available at a reasonable price.

The failure to include a copyright notice voided the copyright for works 
published before 1989.

> However, if a work was NOT published prior to 1930 - for instance, if 
> a work was discovered after the author's death and published in 1955, 
> then it is subject to to the 1978 copyright law of 28 years from the 
> date of publication plus potential renewal of up to 47 more years. 

The need to have been renewed only applies to works published before 1964.

> So... if Harvard published the poems in 1955, and they were never 
> previously published, then they can potentially have a copyright that 
> lasts until 2030. 

Yes, but the copyright had to be renewed in 1983

> Republishing does not generate a new copyright, although new materials 
> included in the republished works, such as commentary, are protected. 

This is a key point.

> http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html
> http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/copyright-howto

See also

> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html#whatpd

Ec