[Foundation-l] Question about office move

Sat Oct 20 06:38:56 UTC 2007

Anthony wrote:
> On 10/19/07, Birgitte SB <birgitte_sb at yahoo.com> wrote:
>   
>> Despite the 9th Circuit's reputation for liberality,
>> moving there would mean a more slightly conservative
>> interpretation of copyright.  Foreign language works
>> first published outside the US between 1909 and 1923
>> are considered public domain in all of US *except* in
>> the 9th circuit which stupidly treats them as
>> unpublished works not subject to the URAA
>>
>> I probably have the details somewhat mistaken but it
>> definitely makes some small difference if we are 9th
>> Circuit or not.
>>     
> Are foreign language works first published outside the US between 1909
> and 1923 currently allowed in WMF projects?  Are they public domain in
> many locations outside the US (roughly speaking in what portion of the
> world are these works free)?
It varies considerably, basing the length of a copyright term on when 
someone died is bound to mismatch with basing it on the date of 
publication.  The big problem with foreign works is the unproven and 
mostly untested theory that the US does not accept the principle of the 
shorter term.

Ec