[pd-discuss] World copyright term map

Tue Jan 3 20:44:55 UTC 2012

I am far from being an expert on UK copyright law, so when I am faced with an issue like this I turn to Tim Padfield's invaluable book.  My 2nd edition says this: "Copyright expires on 31 December 2039, if the work was created, but had not been published, performed in public, offered for sale to the public in the form of records, or broadcast, before 1 August 1989, and the author died before 1 January 1969." [citations omitted]

My interpretation of Tim's analysis would be that an unpublished work of Daniel Defoe would be protected by copyright until 1969.  This is similar to the US where all unpublished works, regardless of when they had been written, initially had perpetual copyright protection.  This ended in 2003.

This is also why James Joyce's published works entered the public domain in the UK on Sunday, but why his unpublished work will remain copyright-protected in the UK until 2040.  See https://joycefoundation.osu.edu/joyce-copyright/fair-use-and-permissions/about-law/currently-unpublished.  

Given the international nature of scholarship, it is difficult to ignore copyrights in other countries.  A Joyce scholar in the US who wants to republish Joyce letters can do so because they are in the public domain in the US.  But if she wants to sell her book in the UK (which is standard procedure for most publishers now), she would still need the permission of the Joyce estate.

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of dingodog at fastmail.fm
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2012 3:18 PM
To: Public Domain discuss list
Subject: Re: [pd-discuss] World copyright term map

Are these rules applied also to authors of XVII, XVII, XVIII centuries?

for instance, if I want translate an unpublished work of Daniel Defoe, Can I assume these works (unpublished) in public domain or not?

excuse for question

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012, at 07:47 PM, Peter B. Hirtle wrote:
> unpublished items from authors who died before 1969 are protected 
> until at least 2040, regardless of how long ago they died.
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  dingodog at fastmail.fm

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