Copyrights That Expire

 Jason Better asked if anyone knew something about Copyrights.  I answered his question by saying that you can pick up an old book at a yard sale and republish it if the copyright has run out. Then Maureen Rebellow Hagerty asked me on Facebook how old a copyright had to be before you can use it?  I couldn't remember so I looked up the information at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/renewals.html. Below is a portion of the good information on that link. 

Copyright 1993-2007 by John Mark Ockerbloom (onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu) "Since a copyright renewal has to be sometime in the 28th year, you'd look for renewals in the records for the original copyright date plus 27 years and the original date plus 28 years. So if the copyright was originally 1941, you'd look at the volumes for 1968 and 1969 to see if there was a renewal. I've recently been told that occasionally the Library of Congress will be slow in publishing renewals (i.e. some renewals made in December in some years don't actually get published until the following January), so you may have to look in the original copyright date plus 29 years to catch these.

I've done this myself for some books. It's a bit of a cumbersome process-- you have to get to the library, and get the appropriate volumes, and then look up the author and the title-- but it can be done.

You can also arrange for the Copyright Office to do the search for you. There's a form you can fill out and send to them, and they'll eventually let you know if they find any renewal records, and if so, what they say. This has gotten rather expensive as of late; as of September 2007, it costs $150 per hour (or fraction thereof) for them to search their files for you. If you want an advance estimate of the search fee, it will cost $100 more! However, if you're precise in your book specification, they should be able to complete the search in an hour or less. See Circular 22 for more details, and a copy of the search request form.

This should give a basic rundown of how to use the Library of Congress copyright database. You may also be interested in the Library of Congress' Web-based card catalog, which can be useful for researching a book's publication history. For more information on searching the Copyright Office's online records, see their tutorial."

Keep in mind that you cannot copy something someone else wrote without identifying who that person is and from where the quote came.  Also, you cannot copy something and change the words enough to make it your own.  If the idea belongs to someone else, it doesn't matter how much you change the wording, the concept belongs to someone else and you must identify that person. 

I am very sensitive to adhering to copyright laws because I am also a published author.  I would not want my concepts stolen by somebody. Of course, I would not mind someone quoting me as long as they identify that I am the author and from what book the quote came.  You may quote only a few paragraphs and not a whole bunch of paragraphs or chapters. That would be an infringement on the copyright laws, ethically and legally, unless you have written permission from the author to do so. I have received permission to copy what someone said but with the prevision that I mention them.  They usually give you the exact words they want you to use.  In that case, be sure to file their permission in a safe place in case it is challenged.

One more thing about copyrighting your material.  When you write it, it belongs to you.  However, when I wrote my book, I was told to print a copy and send it to myself with a certified return card and then store it without opening it. That will prove I wrote it if someone tries to steal my ideas. Later, I learned that just writing it makes it yours, once you create you own it they say. I understand that it is hard to copyright something written on the Internet, but it won't hurt to make sure you have copyright information in the footer of your blog.  It needs to have the Copyright symbol, the date, and your name as the one who holds the copyright.  Below is an example of one of my copyrights:

Copyright©2005 by Judith L. Sherman

(Revised) May 2009

 All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the author. 

You should have something that looks like this at the bottom of your blogs in order to protect your words.  If you don't, copy mine and use it but change the particulars to make it fit your circumstances.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at Judith@JudithSherman.com or 903-487-2989.