Forgotten Treasures #19: THE SPECKLED BROOK TROUT--PART VIII

On May 2, 11:48 am, "Wolfgang" wrote:
"BGhouse" wrote in message

...

Hmmmm ... I wonder if the family retains the copyrights.

The U.S. copyright on this book has lapsed. It is in the public domain.

This is generally true of works published before 1923.....last I heard. For
anything newer than that, the **** can get very complicated.

Wikipedia has a good introduction to copyright law, including a cogent
summary of the lively controversy surrounding ever increasing duration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

For those willing to go to the effort of wading through it, the U.S.
Copyright Office has a lot more detail:

http://www.copyright.gov/

In addition, the clever folks at the Stanford University Library have
put together a very useful tool for determining if certain books have
had their copyright renewed:

http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/

While the book in question is not covered by this database, it is the
type of question that the compilers are concerned with- have the
original copyright holder's heirs renewed the copyright on a work? It
helps figure out the complicated stuff for the 1923-1963 period.

Wm