Posted by John Wilson on September 25, 2004 at 05:07:18 from 202.154.157.202 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: John Buchan posted by Jon on September 24, 2004 at 20:47:34:
While the Gutemberg site says it applies US Law as it is US based with (primarily?) US Servers, it does say further down that it “does not distribute” in other countries where works are still in copyright, eg “Peter Pan”. Is this physical distribution only or do they bar access to their servers eg from Britain for “Peter Pan”?
Noone has said exactly when Britain went to 70 years (in the 1990s?) but this means that several authors who died after 1933 are now back in copyright; eg J M Barrie (died 1937), John Buchan (died 1940) or Rudyard Kipling (died 1936).
But these authors would be out of copyright where the 50 year rule still applies; eg New Zealand, Australia (until raised to 70y with the US free trade agreement), and even perhaps Canada?? NB: There is also a publisher’s copyright in the typographical arrangement of the published edition, which in New Zealand is 25 years from when it was first published).
For Arthur Ransome’s books, published in the 1930s & 1940s, I think his agent or publisher would have had to publish in the US or Canada to get copyright in America under the Pan-American Conventions, as British/European copyright was not recognised?
PS: much of US copyright is dated from year of publication not year of death of author, and (from the ) it can be 95-120 years (Gutenberg Rule 3) for “corporate authors” whatever they are?