Re: public domain query

From: Stephen Fishman <sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 13:03:42 -0700 (PDT)

On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Charles Lozow <charles.lozow[_at_]elektra.com> wrote:
>
> If a song was originally composed by a French author and published
> in France in 1928 and the author died in 1937, is the song in the pd
> for purposes of US law? The French publisher has asserted that the
> song is still protected in France, but the US sub-publisher has yet
> to assert rights. The user can ill afford to have the record subject
> to an injunction. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

The song is not in the PD in France or the U.S. French copyrights
generally last for life plus 70 years. The U.S. copyright in a work
published in France in 1928 lasts for 95 years. The work may have 

been in the public domain in the U.S. before 1996 if it was not renewed, but the copyright was restored effective 1/1/96.

There's one further complication. Under a 9th Circuit holding in a case called Twin Books v. Disney, if the work was published in France without a copyright notice, it receives the same U.S. term of protection as an unpublihsed work. This is life plus 70 years, so the work is still not in the public domain.

Stephen Fishman
<sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com>

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