When searching US published works in the public domain, it is a gray area from 1923 to 1963 where the book may or may not be in the public domain. To determine if a book copyright in that period is in the public domain and freely usable, take the following steps.

Some background on the length of copyright in the United States

• Founded 1-1-78 or after – Life + 70 years1 (or the work of corporate authors, less than 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation
• Published before 1923 – Public
• Published from 1923 – 1963 – 28 year + could be renewed for 47 years, now extended for 20 years for a total renovation 67 years. If not so renewed, now in the public domain.
• Published from 1964-77 – 28 years for the first time; Now automatic extension of 67 years for the second time
• Established before 1-1-78 but not published – LIFE + 70 years old 12-31-2002, whichever is greater
• Established before 1-1-78 but published between then and 12/31/2002 – Life + 70 years old 12/31/2047 whichever is greater

There is one other issue to be aware of – it is a derivative work. For example, you can find the current book is clearly reprint public domain book that carries a copyright notice. You may think that because the original book is the public that this book should be, too. Do not let yourself get caught in the trap and use material from copyrighted books. The way copyright works is that you can create a derivative work of the original public work and copyright to derivative works.

The original book is still public, derivative work would not. If you want to use this material, you will find the original book and use it as a basis because you can never be sure what was changed / modified in derivative works, and if you start to copy it, you can fall afoul of a violation of copyright.

always check the work you do on the original public SOURCE to be safe.

If you find useful books published before 1923, which is great. You do not have to make any confirmation code working to create a product. However, if the book was copyrighted between 1923 and 1963, there may still be under copyright. Estimates are that only 15% of all materials copyright of this period were renovated so there is a ton of stuff available to you during this period. And a lot of that stuff was the best sellers today so there are many hidden gems out there just waiting to be fresh and revealed to the world once again.

So how do you verify the copyright expiration of one of these books?

There are three ways you can take. You can do it yourself, hire a law firm to do a search or Copyright Office conduct a search for you.

Do It Yourself

do it yourself is fairly easy but can be a bit time consuming

If the book was copyrighted between 1950 and 1963 can be perform an online search at the copyright office this link :. http: //www.loc Gov / copyright / search / . This database contains information on copyrights from 1978 to the current date. Therefore, it is limited to search copyrighted books from 1950 onwards. (1950 + 28 = 1978 in a book copyrighted in 1950 has been renewed.)

If the book was published between 1923 and 1949, you can go to file Copyright Entries . This is a manual search in the alphabetic number of digital images. It is a slow process but it is effective. Just to be complete, it is always a good idea to take a few minutes to check several years around the year as well as 28 if only renewal fell in one year.

As you do your research, you should print a copy of any negative results and keep it in a folder of evidence to make a copyright search.

Have Copyright Office do the search for you

The Copyright Office will perform copyright searches for you. They do not charge a fee open (on an hourly basis) to perform a search, and they take a very long time (usually 6-12 weeks) so while it is a possibility, it is not a very popular option.

Hire firm

can hire a law firm as Thompson & Thompson perform copyright searches for you. It is reasonably priced and you will get a detailed report on the results of a copyright search as they occurred. The search is reasonably priced and provides additional security to the law firm said that the copyright has expired, and the work is in the public domain if there are disputes down the road.

Never ultimate

Like any system, search expired copyright is not perfect. There may be other claims on published literature or Errors and omissions copyright files due to human error. Always keep a good record of search operations to protect yourself in this in a million chance that it was unknown claims about the work you choose to work with.