That depends on date of first publication. There have been several
copyright changes in US law over the years. See this.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To
Rule 1
Works first published before January 1, 1923 with proper copyright
notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date
copyright was first secured. Hence, all works whose copyrights were
secured before 1923 are now in the public domain, regardless of where
they were published. (This is the rule Project Gutenberg uses most often)
Works published and copyrighted 1923-1977 retain copyright for 95
years. No such works will enter the public domain until 2019 unless
one of the other rules applies.
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Rule 2
Works first created on or after January 1, 1978 enter the public
domain 70 years after the death of the author if the author is a
natural person. (Nothing will enter the public domain under this rule
until at least January 1, 2049.)
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Rule 3
Works first created on or after January 1, 1978 which are created by a
corporate author enter the public domain 95 years after publication or
120 years after creation whichever occurs first. (Nothing will enter
the public domain under this rule until at least January 1, 2074.)
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Rule 4
Works created before January 1, 1978 but not published before that
date are copyrighted under rules similar to rules 2 and 3 above,
except that in no case will the copyright on a work not published
prior to January 1, 1978 expire before December 31, 2002. If the work
*is* published before December 31, 2002, its copyright will not expire
before December 31, 2047. (This rule copyrights a lot of manuscripts
that we would otherwise think of as public domain because of their age.)
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Rule 5
If a substantial number of copies were printed and distributed in the
U.S. prior to March 1, 1989 without a copyright notice, and the work
is of entirely American authorship, or was first published in the
United States, the work is in the public domain in the U.S. (Note that
we cannot clear items printed/published outside of the U.S. under this
rule)
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Rule 6
Rule 6 is currently under testing and revision. This section describes
GATT exceptions to Rule 6. A future version of Rule 6 will describe
the steps for demonstrating non-renewal to determine public domain.
Works published before 1964 needed to have their copyrights renewed in
their 28th year, or they'd enter into the public domain. Some books
originally published outside of the US by non-Americans are exempt
from this requirement, under GATT. Works from before 1964 were
automatically renewed if *all* of these apply:
* At least one author was a citizen or resident of a foreign country
(outside the US) that's a party to the applicable copyright
agreements. (Almost all countries are parties to these agreements.)
* The work was still under copyright in at least one author's "home
country" at the time the GATT copyright agreement went into effect
for that country (January 1, 1996 for most countries).
* The work was first published abroad, and not published in the
United States until at least 30 days after its first publication
abroad.
If you can prove that one of the above does not apply, *and* if you
can prove that copyright was not renewed, then the work is in the
public domain. For US authors and publications, non-renewal is the
hard part to demonstrate.
To prove an item was not renewed, you need to do an extensive search
of renewals in Library of Congress records (or you could get a letter
from the author or publisher attesting that there was no renewal). The
Library of Congress provides a for-fee copyright renewal search
service, visit http://www.copyright.gov
Please read the document about copyright renewal online at:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/renewals.html before attempting
to prove public domain status of a work published between 1923-1963.
We have a separate Rule 6 How-To
<http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_Rule_6_How-To> for
working under Rule 6.
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Rule 8
U.S. Government and Crown copyright. Items published by the United
States Government do not have copyright protection in the US. We need
to be careful with this rule, because some items distributed by the
U.S. Government might have been authored by other entities who are
entitled to a copyright. In the U.K. and, Canada, Crown copyright
lasts for 50 years for items published by the government.
THOSE ARE ALL THE RULES WE USE. PLEASE CONTACT US BEFORE DECIDING THAT
A RULE APPLIES TO A WORK YOU ARE INTERESTED IN, AS WE NEED TO HAVE THE
FINAL DECISION. DUE TO THE RISKS OF COPYRIGHT VIOLATION, WE MUST
PERFORM "DUE DILIGENCE" TO MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE RIGHTS TO USE THE
ITEMS WE DISTRIBUTE.
NOTE THAT PROJECT GUTENBERG COPYRIGHT RESEARCH IS ONLY FOR PROJECT
GUTENBERG, AND ONLY FOR PURPOSES OF ESTABLISHING COPYRIGHT UNDER
UNITED STATES LAWS. WE CANNOT PERFORM RESEARCH FOR OTHER
ORGANIZATIONS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS WOULD BE WISE TO SEEK THEIR OWN
LEGAL GUIDANCE FOR COPYRIGHT ISSUES.
Danvarner@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 5/14/2008 6:51:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mike@indexdata.com writes:
<< Eh? Where does the date 2023 come from? What happened to
everything
being out of copyright after 75 years? >>
I used 70 years after Knight's death in 1953. I believe that's
correct here in the US. DV
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