Been readying your adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tales of the Jazz Age in hopes of production next year, with the full knowledge that it will fall into public domain? Better rethink things.
The laws regarding copyright have always been convoluted, at best. See, for instance, this "explanatory" note from the U.S. Copyright Office's "Circular 1, 'Copyright Basics:'"
Before 1978, Federal copyright was generally secured by the act of publication with notice of copyright, assuming compliance with all other relevant statutory conditions. U.S. works in the public domain on January 1, 1978, (for example, works published without satisfying all conditions for securing Federal copyright under the Copyright Act of 1909) remain in the public domain under the 1976 Copyright Act. Certain foreign works originally published without notice had their copyrights restored under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). Request Circular 38b and see the "Notice of Copyright" section on page 4 of this publication for further information. Federal copyright could also be secured before 1978 by the act of registration in the case of certain unpublished works and works eligible for ad interim copyright. The 1976 Copyright Act automatically extends to full term (section 304 sets the term) copyright for all works including those subject to ad interim copyright if ad interim registration has been made on or before June 30, 1978.
Ah huh. So unless you're considering adapting a work that you know for a fact is in the public domain -- say, for instance, that it was published prior to 1899 -- you'd be best served consulting a copyright expert or attorney familiar with copyright law. (What follows is my basic understanding of the 1976 law; please! check with an authority before taking my word on it!)
Under the Copyright Act of 1976:
Here you'll find the Amendments to the Act since 1976.
And this is the law under which we've lived for 20 years. But with that 20 year extension about to expire some heavy guns have been brought to bear on the behalf of some very special interests. Next week we'll go into the changes that have been wrought by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. For now, let's just say that those of you who've been planning on seeing a musical adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises during our lifetime had better stop holding their breaths -- instead of entering public domain in 2002 as we once would have anticipated, that sun won't be rising out of copyright until 2022, if ever!
Under pressure from the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc. and its subsidiary, The Harry Fox Agency, Swiss authorities and police shut down the International Lyrics Server and seized its computers for alleged copyright violations. Here's a New York Times report on the incident. In a Suite101.com Theatre article entitled "Dee dee dah Dum" we highly praised the site for its value to scholars, researchers, and students of lyric writing. Please think about signing their petition in defense of fair use of copyrighted material.
C U @ the Theatre!
1 In other words, if the copyright holder failed to renew, the work entered the public domain after only 28 years.
2 Oddly, the "Copyright Basics" circular contains this mysterious language: "The law provides that in no case will the term of copyright for works in this category expire before December 31, 2002, and for works published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright will not expire before December 31, 2027."This seems to cancel out much of what proceeds it; if an author died in 1923, according to the "50 years from the author's death" rule the work should have left copyright in 1974, no?
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 2/2/99
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