Re: anonymous copyright

On Wed, 13 Oct 1999, Mikus Grinbergs <mikus[_at_]bga.com> wrote:
>
> When the author of a work is expressly identified as "Anonymous",
> does that affect the copyright in that work?
>
> [I was on the Board of Editors of an organization. We published
> an anthology of poetry in which the author of one of the poems
> was listed as "Anonymous". We knew who the author was, but the
> author had requested to be listed as "Anonymous" because of the
> intensely personal subject matter of the poem.]

Anonymity affects the term of copyright. Instead of dating from the year of creation (fixation in a tangible medium of expression) through 75 years after death of author, it dates from the year of publication for 75 years, or from the year of creation for 100 years, whichever is shorter.

If the author's identity is recorded with the CO, either by the author or anyone else, the term runs normally (from year of creation until 75 years after author's death). This information (in more detail) is in Section 302 (c) of the Copyright Act.

Georgia Harper
University of Texas System
Office of General Counsel
<mailto:Gharper[_at_]utsystem.edu>
512 499-4462 (voice) /4523 (fax)

Visit the Copyright Crash Course at
<http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/intellectualproperty/cprtindx.htm> Received on Thu Oct 14 1999 - 15:45:09 GMT