Irving Berlin’s song “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”
The first baker’s dozen of Oz books.
Booth Tarkington’s novel, The Magnificent Ambersons
The earliest Mack Sennett Keystone Cops films
The last five years have focused a lot of public attention on US copyright law. Some have attacked it by violating it digitally. If you want to discuss that, go elsewhere. In this thread, I’d like to take a different tack: let us protest overly-extensive copyright by celebrating the public domain.
Here’s what generally qualifies, at least as I read the law:
1. Anything registered for copyright before 1920, barring any strange legal wranglings
Before1976 and subsequent revisions to copyright law (which declare that the term of copyright for anything published after 1977 lasts for the life of the creator +70 years, or, in the case of works for hire or anonymous works or pseudonymous works where the true name of the author is not recorded by the US copyright office, 95 years after creation or 120 years after creation, whichever ends first), the law since 1909 had been that you held a copyright for 28 years, and you could renew during the last year for another 28 years. So anything copyrighted 1919 and duly renewed in 1947 entered the public domain on 1/1/1976. Most things earlier than that is PD as well. Anything copyrighted in 1920 and duly renewed in 1948 was still under copyright on December 31, 1976, and therefore was covered under a 1992 act of Congress retroactively extending the renewal term to 67 years. Such a work will now enter the public domain in 2016. Add the appropriate number of years for anything in similar circumstances copyrighted after 1920 but before 1964.
2. Anything registered for copyright after 1919 but before 1964 where the copyright was not renewed by its 28th year, barring any strange legal wranglings.
Adjustments to copyright law declared that any work with an existing first term copyright beginning 1/1/1964 to 12/31/1977 would automatically receive renewal of its copyright protection for an additional 67 years. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, for instance, if the law had not changed and Paul and Yoko’s lawyers had somehow stupidly forgotten to have them renew, would have become PD after 1992. This law declared, then, that they didn’t even need to think about it. Now, they don’t lose the song to the public domain for good until 2060.
However, if anyone with a copyright that began between 1920 and 1963 who for some reason did not renew their protection is screwed, so feel free to include those works.
And please. There has been plenty of discussion of the sad case of “It’s a Wonderful Life” elsewhere. Let’s try to just let it go for the purposes of this thread. It falls under “strange legal wranglings” and is not currently eligible for inclusion.
3. Anything published without a proper copyright notice before 1978, or between 1978 and 1989 where a correction was not made within five years, barring any strange legal wranglings.
Before the 1976 law (eff. 1978), improper copyright notice meant no protection, period. After 1978, you had five years to correct errors. After 1989, proper notice was unnecessary.
4. Anything currently remaining unpublished or unregistered, created before 1978, with an identifiable creator who died before 1935, barring any strange legal wranglings.
One of the changes to the law is automatic federal protection of existing works remaining unpublished or unregistered by 1/1/1978. Protection was granted for such works until 70 years after the death of the (known) creator or 12/31/2002, whichever came last. This currently excludes the still-unpublished work of anyone who passed away by 12/31/1934.
Of course, if the work ended up getting published between 1/1/1978 and 12/31/2002, fuhgeddaboutit. Protection lasts until 2047 at the earliest, by law.
5. Anything currently remaining unpublished or unregistered, created before 1885, with no identifiable creator, barring any strange legal wranglings.
The law also protects any work for hire, anonymous work or pseudonymous work whose real author remains unknown, which remained unpublished or unregistered as of 1/1/1978, for a maximum of 120 years from the date of creation. If the work was published but somehow not registered before that date, copyright expires 95 years after publication even if the 120 years wasn’t up yet, but I didn’t feel like digging into the law enough to figure out an example of this, so I stuck with what seemed safe. In any event, if the work was published between 1/1/1978 and 12/31/2002, it will be protected until 2047 at the earliest anyway.
Now, there are innumerable loopholes people have discovered to hang on to copyrights, such as putting new titles on old silent films and re-registering them, but to the best of your knowledge, what’s your top Public Domain List?
