Theos-Talk Archives (August 2001 Message tt00008)

MKR:

I just did a quick search using google.com and found a
description of US copyright law concerning unpublished
manuscripts at:

http://www.mycounsel.com/content/intelprop/copyright/duration/unpublished.html

I've cut-and-pasted the description at the end of
this message.

-- Eldon

---- text follows ----

Unpublished works created before Jan. 1, 1978, fall into a
special class of works with regard to the term of copyright
protection.

The current copyright statute provides that works created before
1978 that have neither been published nor registered for
copyright will be protected in the same way that post-1978 works
are protected. That is, the term of copyright protection for
such a work is the life of the author plus 70 years (for joint
works, the life of the last surviving author plus 70 years). If
the work is anonymous, pseudonymous or a work made for hire, the
term of protection is 95 years from the year of first publication
of the work or 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever
expires first.

The present copyright statute provides that unpublished works
created before 1978 cannot expire before Dec. 31, 2002.
Further, if such a pre-1978 work is published between Jan. 1,
1978, and Dec. 21, 2003, its copyright cannot expire before Dec.
31, 2047. These periods of protection aren't affected by the
date the authors of such works die. For example:

An ancestor of yours was born in 1881 and wrote a novel that was
never published. Your ancestor died at the age of 50 in 1931.
Under normal circumstances, the copyright protection would have
expired in 2001, but now--thanks to the statute--the copyright
protection lasts until December 31, 2002.

This provision has interesting implications for anyone who has an
ancestor who kept a diary or was a novelist or composer. Old
manuscripts and other works that would have become public domain
many years ago had they been published before 1978 may be
eligible for copyright protection well into the next century.