-----Original Message-----
>On 10/8/08 8:21 PM, "Pamela Silvestri" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>ok whoa a second here. Please follow my [general] interpretation here, and I'd
appreciate any comment.
>I see nothing that states that under the current law...if one were to create a
copyrighted work today (and thus life+70) that once that expires...that work
enters the public >domain. I believe that if the work is eligible, the heirs may
register a renewal a copyright the?. Anything about renewal in these
links...refers to that which was required (the >28 years) to register a renewal
for works created during a certain period of time and another law that allowed
for an automatic renewal (for which registration of that was/is >not required).
>I see nothing about a work automatically entering the public domain unless a
required renewal wasn't registered for the laws that apply to one time
period...and I see nothing >about works automatically being entered into the
public domain at the expiration of the automatic renewal -not being eligible for
any extended registration of renewal of the >copyright.
>Pam
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>
Copyright essentially gives the creator an exclusive monopoly over the
copying or reproduction of their created work for a limited period of time.
But once that period is over, it automatically enters the Public Domain
the rights to copy that work (not the actual work itself, but the copy
rights) become the property of everyone.
In the past, over the life of copyright law in, say, the last 100 years or
so that period was initially quite short 28 years or so (I canıt recall
the actual times offhand). As Copyright law developed and changed over this
period various ways of increasing the period of the creatorıs monopoly were
introduced. One was allowing for a renewal of copyright for a period of XX
years when the initial period expired (of course not everyone took advantage
of it). Over time though, the period of copyright protection was gradually
increased 47 years... 50 years... 75 years, which is what we basically
have now life of the creator + 75 years.
(There have also been times when the changes in the legislation and ways of
doing this have meant there have had to be transition periods, or that works
created before a certain date were grandfathered in or excluded from the new
legislation which is why those ³when does a work become Public Domain²
flowcharts are a little complicated. Along with the fact that different
kinds of work often had slightly different protection photographs, sound
recordings, text etc...).
But, once the period of Copyright protection ends for a work, then the work
automatically becomes Public Domain which means exactly that. Anyone is
free to copy or reproduce the work for any purpose they want. The only way
to prevent this is physical control. If you own the work and donıt want it
copied, then you have to physically not let people make copies of it (or if
you do, allow them, to do so only under very strict conditions). Whereas,
prior to the work becoming Public Domain, you had the full weight of
Copyright Law (for better or worse), protecting your work. So that even if
it was ³out there² in one form or another, people couldnıt just make copies
of it and use the.
So if you look at that chart I posted the other day, you can pretty much
tell when a work passes into the Public Domain in the US. And for current,
new works it is life of the creator + 75 years. Once that period is up, itıs
available for anyone to copy as long as they can get legitimate access to
it.
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/
Likewise, if you have have a photograph that was published in the US before
1923, then it is now Public Domain and you (or anyone else who has access to
it) can pretty much do what you want with it sell t-shirts, publish it an
anthology, make a huge light box transparency of it for Grand Central
Station.
In addition, there are currently no options for renewing copyright in the US
once the period of protection is up, itıs up during the 1990ıs, the law
moved from allowing a renewal period, to having an automatic renewal period,
to doing away with renewal periods and just having a longer initial period
of copyright protection currently the 75 years. (Though there are some of
those complicated transitory regulations for works created between 1964 to
1977 etc et)
Finally, most works created for or in the employ of the Federal Government
(I think States vary on adopting this?), are automatically in the Public
Domain (essentially they belong to ³the people²). There are a number of
exceptions and complications to this, but itıs why we can have full and free
access to NASAıs Hubble deep space photographs (and why there are so many
postcards, websites, postcards of those pictures out there). The same with
DoD photos from Iraq or wherever they are usually freely available in
hi-res files these days. Many photo agencies will actually access and
download them and then provide them to their clients newspapers and
magazines, for a fee (what they a actually paying the agencies for is
accessibility, and organisation all the pictures are filed, captioned and
easily available in one place). Itıs the same reason you can download Hi-res
files of some of the most iconic photographs of the 20th century from the
Library of Congress Dorothea Langeıs Migrant Mother and Child, Walker
Evansı Bethlehem, Pen. Steelworks and cemetery (along with thousands of
others). They worked for the US Government at the FSA and the photos have
always been Public Domain. You can download the files, makes an 11x14 print
for your wall, or sell prints in your store or on ebay, make coffee mugs of
them or whatever.
Thatıs Public Domain in a nutshell (not..) . Well, itıs the gist of it
but as always with copyright, there are always exceptions, grey areas and so
on.
tim a
--
Tim Atherton
Assistant Curator
Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert
(780) 459-1594
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