Theos-Talk Archives (August 2001 Message tt00012)

Eldon:

Thanks for the info. As you may have noticed, the emphasis of my post was the right of
everyone to quote from unpublished material under the fair use concept without any need
for any permission from the copyright holder.

For example if I come across an unpublished document which contained information that I
feel might be of interest to the public, it is within my right to make a brief quote to
disclose the info in the document and discuss the content generally without having to
be concerned with copyright issue. This would not violate U S Copyright laws since I
would be within the "fair use" exception provided under the Copyright laws.

mkr

Eldon B Tucker wrote:

> 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 description of US copyright law concerning unpublished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 http://www.mycounsel.com/content/intelprop/copyright/duration/unpublished.html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 Unpublished works created before Jan. 1, 1978, fall into a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 The present copyright statute provides that unpublished works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.
>
>
>
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