« Ind. Law - "The tales of two Wilders" | Main | Ind. Decisions - ND Judge rules LaPorte must replace crumbling sidewalks »
Friday, January 01, 2010
Law - "What 'Could' Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010?"
This is an interesting article that highlights how the protection of copyright has been expanded.
Duke Law's Center for the Public Domain has an article that begins:
Current US law extends copyright protections for 70 years from the date of the author’s death. (Corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years.) But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years (an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years). Under those laws, works published in 1953 would be passing into the public domain on January 1, 2010.What might you be able to read or print online, quote as much as you want, or translate, republish or make a play or a movie from? How about Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel? Fleming published Casino Royale in 1953. If we were still under the copyright laws that were in effect until 1978, Casino Royale would be entering the public domain on January 1, 2010 (even assuming that Fleming had renewed the copyright). Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2049. This is because the copyright term for works published between 1950 and 1963 was extended to 95 years from the date of publication, so long as the works were published with a copyright notice and the term renewed (which is generally the case with famous works such as this). All of these works from 1953 will enter the public domain in 2049.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 1, 2010 12:56 PM
Posted to Courts in general