Public Domain Questions

[Jack123]

Hi Dear,

I have few questions on public domain, would appreciate If I am answered.

1. Is an author allowed to renew his/her work post expiration (i.e. he/she renew his work post 5 years of the expiration) OR author is not allowed to renew his/her work post expiration & he/she HAS TO renew it before its expiry?

2. THIS QUESTION IS APPLICABLE IF AN AUTHOR IS ALLOWED TO RENEW HIS/HER WORK POST EXPIRATION...Consider a case where we have managed to use expired copyright content where author didn't renew his/work, but sometime later author decide to renew it, then what's gonna happen because by that time we might have used many of his/her content commercially, so do we need to remove all the posts we made OR what?

Thanks

[keyplyr]

Hi Jack123 and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

[iamlost]

Copyright is generally creator lifetime plus 50 or 70 years depending upon jurisdiction. If the creator has transferred some to all usage then the contract specifies the scope of rights transferred.

In the just agreed NAFTA 2 aka USMCA Canada has just agreed to haul public domain works that had expired copyrights under prior law back into copyright of holders (primarily estates of creators or media/entertainment/publisher companies such as Disney) as the expiry was extended to 70.

If a copyright holder has extinguished their rights directly and not just due to legal time limits I believe they can not be recovered - would depend on the transfer details aka contract and jurisdiction.

NOTE: In matters of law it is always best practice to consult a qualified competent attorney.