Posted by John Wilson on June 05, 2017 at 18:59:22 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: Copyright on AR's works posted by Paul Crisp on May 31, 2017 at 04:05:13:
While the expiry of copyright on AR’s works in Britain is from 1 January 2038, in Canada, New Zealand and a number of other countries it is “Life + 50” (not 70) years or from 1 January 2018. But I do not propose to reprint "Swallows and Amazons" next year (relief all round!). In America as the series were published before 1978 the rule is 95 years from date of publication, and the copyright on "Swallows and Amazons" will expire in 2025 or 2026, and later for other books in the series. I do not know whether it is 95 years from the exact date or (like current copyright) from the beginning of the next year i.e. 1 January 2026 (obviously preferable, in view of the difficulty sometimes in establishing the exact date of publication or of author’s death). This would depend on the date of publication in America (and perhaps Canada?) I suppose. I noticed in a biography of Ngaio Marsh that some of her crime novels in the 1930s to 1950s were published in different years in Britain and America (sometimes later but in some cases earlier, e.g. "Spinsters in Jeopardy" in 1953 by Little Brown, Boston, and in 1954 by Collins, London).
PS: I noticed in the Wikipedia article on "Copyright in the United States" that a judge in 2016 decided that copyright on remastered recordings would be extended, in view of the work in remastering them.
PS: as noted the performing rights to Barrie’s play "Peter Pan" (owned by the Great Ormond Street Hospital) were extended indefinitely. As Barrie died in 1937 his British copyright ran out at the end of 1987; but was brought back by the 1995 harmonisation of EC copyright, until the end of 2007.
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