Question: With all the talk about copyright and public domain on BB I am wondering about one thing. How does one tell if something is copyrighted or not? example: I have a very obscure comic from the 1940's from some no name publisher. How do I tell if it is still copyrighted?

Edited by author 06-25-2003 12:19 PM
It can be difficult to tell if something is in the public domain.

I assume you're in the U.S. http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm is a good quick overview. If your comic was published without a copyright notice, it's in the public domain. If it did have a notice, then you need to check the year of publication + 28 years renewal listings, to see if it was renewed.

If it wasn't renewed, it's in the public domain. If it was renewed, then it won't be in the public domain until 95 years after publication.

For more detail, see http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/renewals.html

-Kurt

Not necessarily.

A comic book is often an adaptation of an existing short story, and a publisher's failure to include a copyright notice does not mean that the author's work is now suddenly in public domain.

There are also instances, as with one anthology I'm in, where the printer screws up and forgets to publish one of the copyright pages, but the copyrights have still been filed with the copyright office.

I think for the most part this legislation will be overall a good thing, but it may become a chore for authors to upkeep copyright notices.

Don't forget there was that failure to renew the American copyright for Lord of the Rings that resulted in The Sword of Shanarra being able to be published in the US without being sued for ... significant similarities. Which is why this significant bestseller has never been reprinted in the UK, where the copyright did not lapse.

I'd be happier with some legislation that says that if someone creates a derivative work of your work, they owe you some set percentage of the proceeds, and if you want to use a work of dubious copyright, you can, so long as you set this money aside in a trust fund for the author or heirs once located.

Something like this would easily settle the Disney/A.A. Milne case: "Here, take your money, have a nice day."

a publisher's failure to include a copyright notice does not mean that the author's work is now suddenly in public domain.

True now, but (IANAL) I am reasonably sure that that is not true for pre-1976 material. For instance, there are a number of different video versions of "Night of the Living Dead" [1968] available because they forgot to include a copyright notice after the titles, and the film entered the public domain.