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Happ (Belated) Public Domain Day
Jan. 4th, 2013 01:38 pmOn Jan 1, many works of art and fiction entered the public domain. You can read about it here (thanks to Bast for the link)
In the US, any work published before 1989 without the proper copyright notice may have already fallen in the public domain. The notice required (1) The word "copyright" or the letter c inside a circle (this type of (c) did not count), (2) the date and (3) the identity of the owner. Of course there are many fiddly exceptions and caveats (like "was it printed after 1979 and republished within 5 years with the correct notice?"). Also, works published outside the US without a copyright notice had their rights restored in 1989.
It you want to blow your mind about how hard it is to assess the copyright status of pre-1989 works, check out this flow chart:
In the US, any work published before 1989 without the proper copyright notice may have already fallen in the public domain. The notice required (1) The word "copyright" or the letter c inside a circle (this type of (c) did not count), (2) the date and (3) the identity of the owner. Of course there are many fiddly exceptions and caveats (like "was it printed after 1979 and republished within 5 years with the correct notice?"). Also, works published outside the US without a copyright notice had their rights restored in 1989.
It you want to blow your mind about how hard it is to assess the copyright status of pre-1989 works, check out this flow chart:
http://chart.copyrightdata.com