US Copyright law does cover both published and unpublished works, with some
differing rules.

The 1909 law only covered published works, assigning protection for 28
years plus a 28 year term of renewal that required active renewal.

The 1978 changes in the law specifically includes unpublished works,
assigning them  protection for the term of the life of author plus 70
years.  If it's an unpublished corporate work (unpublished corporate
documents), they are protected for a term of 120 years.

Anything that was published prior to 1923 is in the public domain,
period.  Anything dated 1964 onwards is still definitely protected by
copyright.

It's fuzziest if an item was published between 1927 and 1977 given the
rules allowing extension of terms of protection, so one must check if an
extension was filed. Also, during this period one was required to place a
copyright notice in a work and apply for copyright, and works from this
period that do not have copyright notice are likely to be be in the public
domain, but to be safe, assume that its in copyright with a term covering
the date of publication plus 95 years.

In 2003 a large number of unpublished works enter the public domain, given
the 95 year rule for authors, 120 years for corporate authors

So, the unpublished family works are still protected.  Donating or selling
an object does not automatically transfer its copyright (although I seem to
remember that in California and in  New York state at one time such laws
did exist); this must be explicitly transferred for all categories of
objects that are considered protected.

At 02:30 PM 7/11/01 -0400, you wrote:
>We have alot of photographs from private collections (like family
>scrapbooks) which over the past 40 years have been given to the museum.
>
>Now, for all my years in this field I have never had a problem taking a
>photo like these from the collection and using it in an exhibit, catalogue
>or marketing materials. We have a new archivist who is saying that if people
>did not sign a form releasing copyright when they donated, we can not use
>it. Is this true? I know it would be if we had government photos or
>something that is specifically copyrighted, but is a family picture of
>grandpa that the family (or grandpa) donated to a museum?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Pamela Feltus
>Curator
>National Museum of American Jewish Military History
>1811 R Street NW, Washington DC 20009
>202-265-6280 x201
>
>www.nmajmh.org
>
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------------
Leslie Johnston
Head of Instructional Technology
Harvard Design School
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