I’m part of a panel for a publishing company in Japan that is collecting children short stories for local English schools. During our search, we discovered a series of short stories written by American writer Angela M. Keyes.
The little information we have discovered on the writer is that most were first published between 1910-1920. Some anthologies which contain her stories state that all works in those books are in the public domain.
We’d like to use some of her works and were wondering if they still protected by copyright and/or in the public domain. Also, would we be able to use her stories and make some slight edits or changes? A credit to the writer would also be included such as “Story adapted from the original by Angela M. Keyes.”
You can normally safely make the assumption that anything in print in the United States before January 1, 1923 is now in the public domain and can be reprinted, excerpted, edited or pretty much anything else at will.
In the U.S., basically anything published prior to 1923 is in the public domain. That means you can reprint or modify it to your heart’s content, for free. Of course, Japanese law might have other rules with which you may need to comply. But, if the works really were written and published before '23, there’s no U.S. copyright.
If the work was written but for some reason remained unpublished until after '23, it could be a different story.
Thanks again (to everyone) for the quick replies. It “seems” we’re in the clear. I had told the panel the same thing, and will check a little more if any Japanese laws differ.
Do check, yes. Copyright laws differ by country, and the fact that something is out of copyright in the US is no indication of its status elsewhere. As an example, some PG Wodehouse stories are in the public domain in America, but in the EU they’ll still be under copyright until 2046.
What I would do is check the original editon. Then I would look around online to see if there are any later versions or revised editions published. A lot of books don’t get reprinted so this isn’t always an easy thing
You could write to the publisher but often you get no answer or incorrect or confusing results. After all they want to make money.
You can arragne for the US Copyright service to search for you, but it’ll cost you. I think it’s over $150.00 for a hour or two hour minimum search
The copyright office publishes a pamphlet about how to search copyrights here [warning PDF File]]
Hmmm… how does that work? I always thought it was 50/70/90 years after the author’s death (unless it’s a corporate work, in which case a fee paid to congressmen will keep it copyright in perpetuity). An author who published fairly young could conceivably still be covered even by the 50-year rule?
Later or revised editions do not protect the text of an edition in print before 1923.
Have you ever done this? I’ve edited anthologies for which I had to get permissions. No publisher ever made a false claim to me. If they didn’t have control over the copyright they said so.
This is useful, but hardly definitive. The records are not complete and extensions of copyright are in particular a sore subject.
Previous copyright law lasted for 28 years from publication, with a opportunity for renewal for another 28 years. After that time, the work went into public domain. If the work was in public domain when the 1977 law went into effect in 1978, it was not put back under protection. So 1922 + 55 years* = 1977, the last year the old law was in effect. Since it was PD before the newer law went into effect, it remained PD.
*You needed to renew in the final year of copyright, so there was a one-year overlap.
This also means that there are a handful of works published as late as 1949 which have lapsed into the public domain, if their owners neglected to renew them. But that’s rare, and can’t be relied upon.
So anyway… according to Wikipedia page on Japanese copyright law, works are protected for fifty years after the death of the author, except in the case of works authored by a resident of one of the WWII allied powers before the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, in which case (for American authors) a further 3,794 days should be added to the length of copyright.
Finding out when Angela M. Keyes died would seem to be the first order of business.
Nonsense. If you want to argue that the copyright term is too long, you’re free to do so - although not in this thread or in this forum.
Legally, however, there is an enormous and unbreachable gulf between a set date and in perpetuity. No law has ever asked for the latter and no court has ever indicated that it would allow it.