[pd-discuss] World copyright term map

Tue Jan 3 19:47:01 UTC 2012

A colleague just pointed out to me that the map on the Public Domain web site at http://www.publicdomainday.org/node/39 says the following about the United States:

"No materials entering public domain until 2019"

This is incorrect.  We just had a whole slew of unpublished items enter the public domain; it is only published material that will not enter the public domain until 2019.  It is the opposite of the UK, where published works of authors who have died 70 years ago are in the public domain but unpublished items from authors who died before 1969 are protected until at least 2040, regardless of how long ago they died.

Maybe the simplest thing to do would be to say that this chart applies to published works?  It probably also applies to unpublished works in many of the countries of the world, but not all.

Peter B. Hirtle, FSAA
Senior Policy Advisor
Digital Scholarship & Preservation Services
Cornell University Library
2B53 Kroch Library
Ithaca, NY  14853
peter.hirtle at cornell.edu
t.  607.255-4033
f.  607.255-9524
http://vivo.cornell.edu/individual/vivo/individual23436
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums:
http://hdl.handle.net/1813/14142

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