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All rare books and hard to find publications brought to you by Hard To Find Books are in the public domain. These works have been made widely available as a service to the general public, by preparing scanned, digital versions of the original, hard copy documents. If you have information not known to the general public, regarding possible copyright infringement of a work contained on the Hard To Find Books website, please contact us immediately.
According to the Copyright Act of 1976, works registered for copyright or published with a copyright notice were protected for a maximum of 75 years of copyright protection, assuming the copyrights on the works were renewed (28 years first term plus 47 for the second, if renewed). Public Law 105-298 enacted in October 1998 increased the maximum to 95 years [28 years first term and 67 for the second, if renewed]. Before 1998 the longest amount of time a work could be protected was 75 years, so works before 1923 were no longer protected (1998 minus 75 years equals 1923). When the law changed, the 1923 date was ‘frozen” and will remain so until 2018 [2018 minus 95 equals 1923]. Starting in 2018 the date that works are no longer protected will again change yearly, being calculated as the current year minus 95 years.
Works published with notice or registered in the U.S. from and including 1923 through 1963 are now in the public domain unless the copyright was renewed, in which case they are protected for 95 years from the copyright or publication date. A copyright search is required to establish if the item was copyrighted and that the copyright was renewed.
Foreign Works
- Works published outside the United States before July 1, 1909 are considered to be in the public domain.
- Works published outside the U.S. with a U.S. Copyright notice before 1923 are considered to be in the public domain.
- Works made by the government of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) and published more than 50 years ago are considered to be in the public domain.
You can apply facts about the duration of copyright to determine if a copyright has expired or is still in effect. The full copyright law is available from the U.S. Copyright Office web site at http://www.copyright.gov/, as are circulars that explain specific aspects of the law, including these circulars, which deal with duration of copyright:
This information has been taken from the Library of Congress website and relevant text of copyright law from the U.S. Copyright Office. |
