From: BRUCE MCPHERSON (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2008 - 08:16:37 PDT
Jim Carlile's statement quoted below pertains to works published by a U.S.
company. Foreign books, say by an English publisher, that lack copyright
notices but find their way into U.S. libraries, collections, etc., are not
PD, at least not necessarily. That might seem hardly to require mention, but
English and American companies often had (and still do have) similar names,
even when completely independent of one another. And sometimes the same
plates were reused cross-Pond, or co-editions were issued. So the issue of
PD can sometimes become difficult to determine without very thorough
bibliographic research.
Bruce McPherson
<Here's a little hint about pre-1964 works-- - In my experience searching
<down copyrights, it is absolutely AMAZING how many works lack the required
<copyright "notice." This absence is extremely common in old post-1923
journals.
<But notice was explicitly required as a strict condition of copyright,
<always (from 1909 on.) So, if you want to release an old published work
pre-1964,
<or even 1976, check for the notice. If it's not there, the work is in the
<public domain. It always was.
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