You would be free to translate these books into other languages, create Braille or audio versions for visually impaired readers (if you think that publishers wouldn’t object to this, you would be wrong), or adapt them for film. Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night.Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume I and Volume II. What books would be entering the public domain if we had the pre-1978 copyright laws? You might recognize some of the titles below. A Copyrighted History of the English-Speaking Peoples Could Shakespeare, Plato, or Mozart be pulled back into copyright? The Supreme Court gave no reason to think that they could not be. (The law in the EU is different – thousands of works from authors who died in 1942 are entering their public domain on January 1.) Even more shockingly, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Congress can take back works from the public domain. 1 And no published works will enter our public domain until 2019. Under those laws, works published in 1956 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2013, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2052. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years – an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. The films Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, The Best Things in Life Are Free, Forbidden Planet, The Ten Commandments, and Around the World in 80 Days, the stories 101 Dalmatians and The Minority Report, classic Elvis Presley songs, and more … The Best Things in Life are NOT FreeĬurrent US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2013? Under the law that existed until 1978 … Works from 1956
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