Akirill.com

Copyrights to my understanding

How do I find out whether the book is in the public domain?

The rules vary from country to country. In the US and many other countries including Europe, authors can put a work in the public domain by formally declaring that they are doing so. But most books enter the public domain either because they are not copyrightable (e.g. certain government documents), or because their copyrights expire.

Below, I give my best understanding of when copyright expires in various countries, but keep in mind that I am not a lawyer, and should not be relied on for legal advice.

In the United States, the following rules apply:

  • Anything (other than sound recordings) copyrighted prior to 1927 is in the public domain. (Practically speaking, this includes anything published prior to 1927, since publication without copyright put the work straight into the public domain. But note this possible exception in some western states for some 1909-1926 foreign works that were not published in the US before 1927. Sound recordings need to have been published before 1923 to be in the public domain, but see below for more information on exemptions that cover them.)
  • Certain works copyrighted in 1927 or later may already have entered the public domain. In particular, works published in the US before 1989 without proper copyright notice, and works published in the US before 1964 whose copyrights were not renewed, may have entered the public domain. However, works from 1927 or later that were originally published in countries outside the US may still be copyrighted regardless of whether they were printed with proper notice or renewed. To research whether a book’s copyright has been renewed, or needed to be renewed, see this article.
  • Works never published prior to 2003 (and never registered for copyright prior to 1978) are now in the public domain in the US if they are by authors who died more than 70 years before the most recent New Year’s day.

Peter Hirtle at Cornell has a useful annotated chart covering the US copyright status of various types of works in more detail.

Here’s a summary of copyright durations in other countries, last I checked them: (Please double-check terms for your country):

  • Short or nonexistent: A few countries have no copyright relations with the United States or with international copyright conventions. Other countries provide no copyright protection at all, or protection only for a short time period or for locally produced or registered works. One country in this category was Afghanistan, last I checked. The Online Books Page will not list online books that are only in the public domain in such countries, unless they were originally published in those countries, or the copyright holder has given permission. (Note that in the US, works are not eligible for copyright protection unless they are published or created in a country that has copyright relations with the US.)
  • Life + 25: The Universal Copyright Convention specifies that copyrights should run for the life of the author plus (at least) 25 years (which is sufficient to protect a work during the lifetime of the author and the minority of the author’s children). Most UCC members, however, now have longer terms, because they have signed on to the Berne Convention (see below), or have joined organizations like the World Trade Organization that require eventually implementing Berne’s longer copyright terms. Here are some countries that may still have the shorter UCC terms:
    • Iraq copyright law was extended from life+25 (or 50 years total, whichever is greater) to life+50 in 2004 by the US administrator Paul Bremer after the occupation of Iraq. It is unclear, however, whether these changes will remain in effect after Iraq fully regains self-rule.
    • Seychelles copyright law specifies copyrights of life+25 years for most works, as of 1991 (the latest year for which I can find a law).
    • Sudan‘s copyright law also has life+25 year terms in general. It is unclear whether this country has copyright relations with the US, or with international copyright conventions.
  • Life + 30: In Yemen, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 30 years. They have recently signed the Berne Agreement, though, so will be extending their term to life+50 years before long.
  • Life + 50: The Berne Convention specifies that copyrights should run the life of the author plus (at least) 50 years, rounded up to the end of the calendar year. “Life + 50 years”, is therefore the standard copyright length in many countries, including (to the best of my knowledge) Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Benin, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Cuba, Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Fiji, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq (under US occupation rules), Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, (South) Korea, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Qatar, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia. Some countries that recently enacted life+50 terms may not have applied them retroactively. Therefore, some works by authors who died less than 50 years ago, but long enough ago that their copyrights had ended by the time of the country’s term extension, might still be in the public domain.Some life+50 countries are also considering extending their terms to life+70 years as part of agreements with the US or the European Union. Some may already have done so, though I do not yet have definite confirmation of any of the countries below. Among these countries are:
    • Bahrain (recent agip.com commentary linked below suggests they may have gone to life+70 in 2006, but I haven’t yet found a copy of the law where I can verify this)
    • Dominican Republic and El Salvador (stipulated in CAFTA; I don’t know what the timetable is for such changes, or whether those countries have enacted new legislation as a result)
  • Authors living in 1954 or later: This reportedly is the transitional term for copyrights in Russia, which extended its copyrights from life+50 years to life+70 years, effective July 28, 2004. I am told that copyrights that had already expired at that point were unaffected, but I don’t yet have English-language confirmation on this point. (Kevin Hawkins of Michigan pointed me to a Russian site at copyright.ru, whose text I can’t read. There’s also an English notice of the change at petosevic.com, but it doesn’t talk about transitional provisions.) Russia has also in the past granted extra time for authors who were active in World War II, or who were repressed and then rehabilitated. I don’t know if those extensions are included in the new law.
  • Authors living in 1955 or later: This is the transitional term for copyrights in Australia, which extended its copyrights from life+50 years to life+70 years, effective January 1, 2005. Copyrights that had already expired at that point were unaffected.
  • Life + 60: In Haiti, India and Venezuela, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 60 years.
  • Life + 70: In the European Union, Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia (for new works), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Russia (for new works), Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. (The European Union includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.) Life plus 70 years is also the standard duration of copyright in the United States for works first published after 1977. But note:
    • Many countries with a term of life+70 years or longer adopted it relatively recently. Some may have a transitional period that means that some works by authors who died less than 70 years ago may still be in the public domain. If you want to use some of those works in one of those countries, you’ll need to research national laws to see whether a country made the extension retroactive, of whether it just simply froze the public domain for a while. For example, most European Union countries made the extensions retroactive, rolling the public domain 20 years by bringing works back into copyright. But Australia, which went from life+50 to life+70 in 2005, did not do this; instead it has effectively postponed entry into the public domain for authors who died in 1955 or later. (The public domain will start moving forward again in Australia at the end of 2025.) This may also be the case for Russia (see “authors living in 1954” above). Israel had also done this previously, though long enough ago that its transitional phase has effectively ended at this writing.
  • Life+75: Even as more countries move to life+70 terms, some countries are now extending the copyright even further. These longer terms may in the future serve as an excuse for extensions in other countries in the name of “harmonization”. In Guatemala, Honduras, and Samoa, for instance. copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 75 years, with certain exceptions. I do not know if these laws cover older works or are just applied to copyrights current at the time the longer terms were adopted.
  • Life+80: In Colombia, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 80 years, with certain exceptions. Again, I don’t know to what extent, if at all, this law retrospectively applies to older books, or whether they just apply to books under copyright when the longer terms were adopted.
  • Even longer: A few countries are now at or near the century point. In Cote d’Ivoire, copyrights tend to last for the lifetime of the author plus 99 years. And in July 2003, Mexico extended its copyrights to the lifetime of the author plus 100 years! Again, I don’t know to what extent, if at all, these laws retrospectively apply to older books, or whether they just apply to books under copyright when the longer terms were adopted.

In some countries outside the US, there is also a “law of the shorter term”, which may expire copyrights for books written and published in other countries at the same time as they expire in their “home” country, if this is a shorter time period.

In the cases of multiple authors, authors that are organizations rather than people, works not published until after the author’s death, and works published outside the country, national laws vary.

You can often find information on publication dates and author’s death dates from the book itself, or from library catalogs. Other resources for this information include the New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors (in the UK), and the WATCH database. We also have some more information on determining death dates.

Wikipedia has a set of links on copyright length in various countries. Be sure to follow the citations before relying on the information, though. See also WIPO Lex, a database of various legal documents, including national copyright laws, organized by country.

What if the book is copyrighted in some countries, but public domain in others?

Consider first whether it’s copyrighted in your own country (or the country where your Web site is located, if that’s different).

As far as I’m aware, there are not yet hard-and-fast rules on the distribution of legal responsibility for downloading etexts from a country where they’re public domain to a country where they’re not. But I would avoid downloading texts from other countries that are copyrighted in your own country.