Copyright Law & Content
Copyright prohibits the use of a work by anyone other than the author. It is a common mis-perception that if you are not benefiting or making money from the work that you can use it as you will, however, this is not true. The Disney Corporation and various music production companies are well known for guarding their assets to the teeth so it is a good idea to take copyright infringement lightly, either ethically or financially.
For a work to be in the public domain it must be:
Published prior to 1923
or
Published without copyright notice between 1923 and 1977
or
Published with notice between 1923 and 1963 but copyright was not renewed
or
Published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 but without notice and without subsequent registration within 5 years
Otherwise the work still has copyright on it. Notice that all these laws change from country to country – you might not be able to use a book here in the US but find that it is within the public domain in another country. For more information, visit http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/
Certain exceptions do apply. The doctrine of “fair use” allows for limited reproduction of a work for scholarly purposes, criticism and comment. For more information, visit: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
Upcoming blog posts will cover these following topics in Part 2:
- General law
Searching for Content
- Public Domain Literature
- Obtaining Author & Publisher Permission for Copyrighted Materials
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