U.S.

Copyright Laws
Determining the Copyright Status of Books Published After 1923
10-22-2011 Paul James

Purpose of This Study

The purpose of this research paper was to determine whether U.S. books first published between 1923 and 1935 are in the public domain. This author is working on a project to upload public domain Gregg Shorthand novels published between 1903 and 1935 to the Internet Archives Library.
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Common Misconception
There is a common misconception that all books originally published in the U.S. after January 1, 1923, are currently protected by U.S. Copyright laws.

General Findings
Many books originally published in the U.S. from 1-1-1923 through 2-28-1989 fell into the public domain because they lacked a valid copyright notice on the verso page. Over 90% of all books first published in the U.S. from 1-1-1923 through 12-31-1963 are in the public domain because they were not renewed during the 28th year following the original copyright date.
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Valid Copyright
The required copyright notice on the verso page of a book prior to 3-1-1989 included the following:
The publication year or full date The copyright owner's name (company or individual) Example: 1919 by John Smith
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Valid Copyright Notice Requirement Prior to 1-1978

Books published in the U.S. before 1-1-1978 without a valid copyright notice on the verso page automatically entered the public domain upon publication.

Valid Copyright Notice 1-1978 Through 2-1989

Books published from 1-1-1978 through 2-28-1989 without a valid copyright notice on the verso page did not automatically enter the public domain upon publication. The potential copyright owner had only 5 years after the date of original publication to rectify this omission.
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How to Rectify Valid Copyright Omission

Books published from 1-1-78 through 2-28-89 without a valid copyright notice could have the copyright omission rectified by the copyright owner as follows: Print a valid copyright notice on the verso page of all future publications of the book within 5 years of the original publication date. Register the book with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years of the original publication date. Notify all distributors of the book by certified mail of the omission and correction. If not an undue financial burden, attempt to contact every purchaser of the book stating that the book was published without a valid copyright notice.
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Valid Copyright Notice After 3-1-1989

After 3-1-1989, placing a copyright notice in a book was optional. The omission of a valid copyright in a book first published after 3-1-1989 would not cause that book to fall into the public domain.

Book Copyright Renewal Requirements Until 1992

Prior to 1992, a book had to be renewed during the 28th year following the original copyright date. If the renewal did not occur during that one-year period, the book entered the public domain on January 1 of the following year. Example:
If the original copyright date was 2-7-1928, then the 28th year would be 1956. The book would have to be renewed from 2-7-1955 through 2-7-1956. If the book was not renewed during that period, then the book entered the public domain on 1-1-1957.
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Book Copyright Automatic Renewal After 1992 Beginning on 1-1-1992, the renewal of a book became automatic. There was no need to renew a book during the 28th year following the original copyright date. This meant that books originally copyrighted after 1-1-1964 did not need to be renewed.
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Book Affected by Copyright Automatic Renewal After 1992

By 1992:
all books published from 1-1-1923 through 12-31-1963 that were not renewed during the 28th year following the original copyright date had fallen into the public domain. Books published after 1-1-1964 were automatically renewed.

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1909 Copyright Law Renewal Terms

Under 1909 U.S. Copyright law, books were given a 28 year copyright term with a 28 year renewal for a total of 56 years.

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1976 Copyright Law Renewal Extension For Books Published Prior to 1978
Under 1976 U.S. Copyright law, the following books published prior to 1-1-1978 were given a 47 year renewal term for a total of 75 years from the original copyright date:

Books that were still in their 28 year renewal term between 12-31-1976 and 12-31-1977, inclusive Books that were up for copyright renewal between 12-31-1976 and 12-31-1977, inclusive

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1976 Copyright Law Renewal Extension For Books Published After 1-1978
Books that were published on or after 1-1-1978 were given a copyright term of the life of the last living author plus 50 years. Books with corporate authorship published on or after 1-1-1978 were given a copyright term of 75 years from date of original publication.
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1998 Copyright Law Renewal Extension For Books Published Prior to 1978
Under 1998 U.S. Copyright law, the renewal term for books originally published prior to 1-1-1978 that had not fallen into the public domain had their renewal extended another to 67 years for a total of 95 years from the date of the original copyright. Books that had already fallen into the public domain by 1998 did not qualify for this 20 year extension.
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1998 Copyright Law Renewal Extension For Books Published After 1-1978
Books published on or after 1-1-1978 were given a copyright term of life of the last living author plus 70 years. Books with corporate authorship published on or after 1-1-1978 were given 95 years from date of original publication or 120 years from date of creation, whichever was earlier.
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Works Published after 1923 in the Public Domain

Experts at the U.S. Copyright Office estimate that less than 15% of all copyrighted works originally published from 1-1-1923 through 12-31-1963 were not renewed in the 28th year following the original copyright date.
The 15% estimate of non-renewals is based on an average that varies among different medium. Books tended to have less than a 10% renewal rate, while movies tended to have a very high renewal rate of over 70%.
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1960 U.S. Copyright Office Renewal Survey for 1958-59

The U.S. Copyright Office created statistics in 1960 for renewals that took place in 1958-59 for books originally copyrighted in 1931-32

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1960 U.S. Copyright Office Renewal Survey for 1958-59

The U.S. Copyright Office Study determined the following percentage of renewals for 1958-1959 for books originally copyrighted in 1931-1932:
Books 7% Periodicals 11% Works for Oral Delivery 0.4% Drama 11% Music 35% Maps 48% Works of Art 4% Technical Drawings 0.4% Art Prints 4% Movies 74%

(Chart from The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by Stephen Fishman, 5th ed., Berkeley, NOLO, 2010.)

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Foreign Books That Entered the Public Domain

Many foreign books published after 1-1-1923 fell into the public domain in the U.S. for one of the following reasons:
They were published from 1-1-1923 through 2-28-1989 without a valid copyright notice. The copyright for a book published 1-1-1923 through 12-31-1963 was not renewed during the 28th year after publication. The U.S. did not have any copyright relationship with the country where the book was originally published.
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1994 Treaty - Restoration of Foreign From The Public Domain

In 1994, the U.S. signed a foreign treaty called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Part of this treaty included the 1-1-1996 restoration of all foreign works that fell into the public domain in the U.S. for the reasons listed on the previous slide if all of the following conditions were met:

At least one of the authors was a citizen of a foreign country that had copyright relations with the U.S. in 1996. The book was first published in the foreign country, but it was not published in the U.S. within 30 days of the original foreign publication. The copyright for the book had not expired in the foreign country as of 1-1-1996. The United States had a copyright agreement with the foreign country on 1-1-1996.
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Searching for Copyright Records Created after 1-1978

To search for original copyright and copyright renewal records created on or after January 1, 1978, search the Online Copyright Office database: http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgibin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=Fir st

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Searching for Copyright Records For 1922 Through 1977

To search for copyright records and renewals created from 1-1-1922 through 12-31-1977, search the digitized volumes of the U.S. Copyright Catalog of Copyright entries online through Google Book search: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/co pyrightsearch.html
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Guidelines for Searching For Copyright Renewals (1923-1963)

When looking for renewals for books first copyrighted from 1-11923 through 12-31-1963, please note the following:
If you are searching the separate digitized U.S. Copyright Catalog volumes through Google Book search, search for a renewal in the catalog volumes for the 27th, 28th, and 29th years following the original copyright date. You need to search the 27th and 28th year volumes because the renewal had to occur during the 28th year, which includes the dates starting from the 27th anniversary through the 28th anniversary of the original copyright date inclusive. You need to search the 29th year catalog because sometimes renewals registered during the 28th year were entered after the deadline for the 28th year volume publication. These late entries ended up in the 29th year catalog volume.

For example, if a book was originally copyrighted in 1928, you would need to search for a renewal in the 1955, 1956, and 1957 U.S. Copyright Catalog volumes.
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Works Cited
"Copyright Law of the United States." 23 Sept. 2005. Wikipedia. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States>.
This web page has a general summary of U.S. Copyright law. There are individual links that can be used to get more details about Copyright law changes for different years.

Richard Stim. Patent, Copyright & Trademark: an Intellectual Property Desk Reference. 11th ed. Berkeley: NOLO, 2010. Print.
This book is a good general reference book for Patent, Copyright, and Trademark laws.

"Searching Google's Scans of the Catalog of Copyright Entries." 2011. Google Books. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/copyrightsearch.html>.
Use this web site to search through the U.S. Copyright Office's Copyright Catalogs from 1922 to 1977. You can do a high-level search to find the volumes that might contain your search criteria, then search individual volumes. Or you can directly search through individual volumes.

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Works Cited (Cont.)

Stephen Fishman J.d. The Copyright Handbook: What Every Writer Needs to Know. 11th ed. Berkeley: NOLO, 2011. Print.
This book provides detailed information on copyright law with a focus on how a writer can copyright written material.

Stephen Fishman J.d. The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More. 5th ed. Berkeley: NOLO, 2010. Print.
This book provides great detail about copyright law with a focus on finding items originally published after 1923 that fell into the public domain. There are separate chapters for books, films, art, etc.

"United States Copyright Office Public Catalog." N.d. Copyright Catalog (1978 to Present). Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http:///cocatalog.loc.gov/cgibin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First>.
This web page has the search engine for original copyrights and renewals that took place on or after January 1, 1978.

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