Here's a brief rundown on how to determine the copyright status of a
work:

Years are figured from January 1, of the year the copyright is issued,
regardless of the month.

Under current law, copyright exists for the life of the author plus 50
years.  In the case of a work for hire, or something copyrighted by an
organization, the term is 75 years.

Items published prior to 1962 with no copyright mark are in the public
domain.

Items copyrighted prior to 1924 are in the public domain.

Items published between 1924 and 1944 "MAY" be in the public domain,
depending on whether the copyright was renewed.  This renewal had to be
done within the end of the 26th year and the beginning of the 29th year,
thus 1924 copyrights were up for renewal in 1952, 1925 in 1953, etc.  One
must do a search for 1951, 1952, and 1953 on a book copyrighted in 1924,
etc.  This copyright search may be done by request to the US Copyright
Office ($200 per search I think) or one may check The Catalog of
Copyright Entries in the Government Documents of a library which is a
SUDOCS repository.  In South Carolina, I have only found a complete set
in Columbia - Cooper Library.

Items under copyright in 1978 have been grandfathered into the current
law until January 1, 2001.  At that time, everything written prior to
January 1, 1946 and everything on which the author died in 1952 or
earlier will be in the public domain except for those works copyrighted
by an organization, in which case the rolling 75 year term will continue.

Clear as mud, right? (grin)

Thus in another year and a half, it will become increasingly important
for people to know when an author died - a whole new business opportunity
for us genealogists (grin) - now if we can just get all those Social
Security index cards from 1947 - 1962 transcribed, and those (almost
unreadable) tapes from 1963 - 1978 transcribed.

John Rigdon

P. S. If you have questions on a particular title, drop me a note.

PPS.  I'm not an attorney, but I've found most of them haven't the
foggiest about all this anyway.


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