Talk:List of authors whose works are in the public domain

Untitled

Can we get a bot to pluck out all American writers (of any genre or other subdivision) who died before 1937? bd2412 T 21:03, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

That would serve no purpose, because US copyright law isn't based on the date of the creator's death. - JasonAQuest (talk) 16:02, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

17 U.S.C. § 302 specifically states that "Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and 70 years after the author’s death"; and that 17 U.S.C. § 303 states that "Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302"; and all previous copyrights filed (that is copyrights under the previous law) endured for 28 years, with an express option to renew for 28 years (generally not exercised, but there anyway), so they could receive at most 56 years of protection prior to January 1, 1978. That is why everything published before 1923 is in the public domain, and why everything published by an author who died more than 70 years ago will now enter the public domain, at least until December 31, 2047. Cheers! bd2412 T 17:11, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I know all that. I ignored post-1978 copyrights because their expiration dates won't be relevant in the near future (and are likely to be extended further). The date of 1937 has absolutely no significance to the past or imminent expiration of copyrights in the U.S. - JasonAQuest (talk) 17:37, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

If an author died in 1937, it has now been more than 70 years since their death. Thus, even if their published works were still under copyright in 1978, the term would expire no later than 2007. Of course, this does not apply to previously unpublished works (or to corporate or anonymous works), but most authors are known as authors because of works that have been published (and in their name). bd2412 T 17:56, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

The Copyright Act of 1976 did not convert active copyrights whose terms were based on date of registration to terms based on the date of creator's death. Section 303 only applies to unpublished and unregistered works, which are of little interest. Any copyrights that were in force at the beginning of 1978 are covered by section 304, which leaves the date of original registration as the reference point: "Any copyright still in its renewal term ... shall have a copyright term of 95 years from the date copyright was originally secured." - JasonAQuest (talk) 18:46, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

While I applaud the interest, this list poses multiple problems:

1. the title is unclear -- is it authors who have at least one work in the PD, or authors whose entire corpus is in the PD?
2. The description is a problem. For instance, there are a few JDX -- mexico, for instance -- where (c) is life+100, and there are numerous special instances in other JDX where legislatures have extended copyright or granted special sui generis rights to this or that work or author or category of works. (A list of works protected by special exception would actually be pretty helpful.)
3. How on earth to select listees? Everyone prior to the 19th century, for instance (unless they are specially protected in some fashion). Where's Jane Austen? And there are gajillion of writers who are not included here. You really don't want this list to become some kind of reference that people use to say "well they're not on the WP PD list so we can't use it".
4. Folks are going to be confused regarding translations, audio recordings, and so on. These have separate copyrights. At the least, a note needs to be added about that.
5. Updating this is going to be a PITA.

--Lquilter (talk) 18:32, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly. I've already put List of public domain characters up for deletion for many of the same reasons. - JasonAQuest (talk) 18:49, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

My goal was to create a complete list of authors whose complete corpus of work is in the public domain. I am beginning to see what a hornet's nest that is, but I still think it would be a useful resource to be able to point people to authors whose works they can use freely. bd2412 T 18:56, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Redirect

I've redirected this to Public domain, which is a better resource for anyone trying to figure out whether something is PD in their jurisdiction or not. - JasonAQuest (talk) 13:55, 4 October 2008 (UTC)