Re: UK copyright term

On Mon, 05 Apr 1999, Tyler Ochoa <tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> wrote:
>
> On 04/03/99, Timothy Phillips <hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 4/2/1999, Barbara Friedman <blfriedman[_at_]bryancavellp.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Is there any possible way that H.G. Wells' book "The Island
> > > of Dr. Moreau" can still be protected by copyright? It was
> > > first published in the UK in 1896 and Wells died in 1946.
> > > I believe I remember hearing that Parliament will occasionally
> > > single out a specific work for a longer term of protection.
> > > How can I be sure this is not such a work? Also, is there
> > > anywhere on the web to find UK's Copyright Act?
> >
> > If Wells died in 1946, all of his copyrightable work is under
> > copyright in the UK and in most of western Europe (I'm not
> > sure about Switzerland, though) until 2017 or 2018 (do they
> > have a "January 1st" rule in any of the life + 70 countries ?)
>
> The answer is not that simple. Additional information is needed: Do
> European Union countries apply life+70 retroactively? If so, is it only
> applied to works that were still under copyright at the time life+70 was
> adopted, or did it revive copyrights in works that had fallen into the
> public domain? If the former, when was life+70 adopted, and was Wells'
> work still under copyright at that time?
>
> I agree with the analysis of U.S. law. Anything first published in
> 1922 or before is in the public domain in the U.S.

My understanding of the extension of European copyright to 70 years is that works whose copyright expired for a period have had their copyright extended for the years remaining in the 70-year term. However, during the period they were in the public domain, they could be reproduced without permission and any such publication need not obtain retroactive permission.

Harold Orlans
<horlans[_at_]erols.com> Received on Tue Apr 06 1999 - 12:36:47 GMT