Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 09:40:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Peter Hanff Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 08-17-96 Dave, In the last several Ozzy Digests there have been a number of conjectures about duration of copyrights in the Oz books. I thought an informal history of the copyright situation might be helpful to those interested. Until the 1976 copyright act passed, the Oz books were governed by the provisions of the 1909 law. That law provided that a work published with a correct U. S. Copyright notice on its title page or the verso of the title page and duly registered was protected for a term of twenty-eight years. During the twenty-eighth year, the copyright could be renewed for one last period of twenty-eight years. Failure to place the copyright notice in the right position or the right form generally resulted in the work's being automatically in the public domain. Failure to renew during the proper time frame also placed the work in the public domain. In 1962 the Congress began extending subsisting copyrights because it was beginning work on a new copyright law and expected to provide for longer terms of protection than had been permitted earlier. Thus works that would otherwise have slipped into the public domain that year were automatically extended. The original provision requiring renewal still prevailed, so filing for renewal was still necessary to extend a first-term copyright. According to family tradition, Ruth Plumly Thompson, recognizing that her Oz titles had been out of print for a number of years, saw no advantage to continuing to pay fees and file renewal forms and the last five of her titles were allowed to enter the public domain. The copyright records indeed confirm that no renewals were filed for The Wishing Horse of Oz and later Thompson titles. All the earlier titles still protected by copyright in 1962 continued to have protection (if renewed) until the new copyright law went into effect in 1978. The new law granted protection for works originally published before 1976 (and properly renewed) for a maximum of 75 years from original date of publication. However, renewal of first-term copyrights first registered under the older law was still required to protect them. To simplify the expiry date for all such works, the new law provided that such works would be protected through December 31 of the last year of protection. The records of the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress are open to the public. The Copyright Office will also provide searches for copyright renewal, including renewal status, for a fee. There are also fee-for-service pritvate searchers available. It is always wisest to verify the status of a specific work if you are at all concerned about whether it is still protected by copyright. The records of the Copyright Office have been maintained in various ways through the decades. The earliest records are in great ledger books, later records are in card files, and more recent records are compurized. Unfortunately, there is no single place to look for authoritative information on an individual copyright. Even when a reasonable search has indicated that a work is in the public domain, there have been occasions when the Copyright Office discovered that work was still protected by copyright. In such instances, future publication of a protected work may be stopped, although the courts have generally not assessed penalties against the infringer. Peter