l Advisory Board (LAB): Intellectual Property.

Until the payment of royalties for copyright is possible on the Web, digital
libraries focus on 19th-century texts, or older texts, which belong to public
domain. In many countries, a text enters the public domain 50 years after his
author's death.

In Clearing an Etext for Copyright, Michael Hart gives Project Gutenberg's
volunteers some rules of thumb for them to determine when works enter the public
domain. For the United States:

a) Works first published before January 1, 1978 usually enter the public domain
75 years from the date copyright was first secured, which is usually 75 years
from the date of first publication. (This is the rule Project Gutenberg uses
most often).

b) Works first created on or after January 1, 1978 enter the public domain 50
years after the death of the author if the author is a natural person. (Nothing
will enter the public domain under this rule until at least January 1, 2023.)

c) Works first created on or after January 1, 1978 which are created by a
corporate author enter the public domain 75 years after publication or 100 years
after creation whichever occurs first. (Nothing will enter the public domain
under this rule until at least January 1, 2053).

d) Works created before January 1, 1978 but not published before that date are
copyrighted under rules 2 and 3 above, except that in no case will the copyright
on a work not published prior to January 1, 1978 expire before December 31,
2002. (This rule copyrights a lot of manuscripts that we would otherwise think
of as public domain because of their age.).

e) If a substantial number of copies were printed and distributed in the U.S.
without a copyright notice prior to March 1, 1989, the work is in the public
domain in the U.S."

When Project Gutenberg distributes in the United States, U.S. law applies. When
it distributes to other countries, local law applies.

Project Gutenberg and The On-Line Books Page, among others, are concerned with
the new Copyright Extension. On October 28, 1998, John Mark Ockerbloom wrote in
the News of The On-Line Books Page:

"The copyright extension bill mentioned in the October 9 news item is now law,
having been signed by President Clinton on October 27. This will prevent books
published in 1923 and later that are not already in the public domain from
entering the public domain in the United States for at least 20 years.

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