Some Books that Aren't in the Public Domain (and why)

Post by **TriciaG** » June 18th, 2020, 6:45 am

Bookworm360 wrote: ↑
June 17th, 2020, 9:36 pm
When does The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings(or Tolkien’s work in general) go into the public domain?

Add 96 to the original publication year. It'll be January 1 of that number year.

Post by **annise** » June 18th, 2020, 6:46 am

Some of the others were put together after his death by his son working from storylines his father hadn't published so they may be even longer , especially if legally his son holds the copyright.
Anne

Bookworm360 · Post by **Bookworm360** » June 18th, 2020, 7:39 am

Okay. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who can’t WAIT for that to happen. Is anyone else here a Middle-earth fan as well?

JayKitty76 · Post by **JayKitty76** » June 18th, 2020, 12:04 pm

Bookworm360 wrote: ↑
June 18th, 2020, 7:39 am
Okay. I’m sure I’m not the only reader who can’t WAIT for that to happen. Is anyone else here a Middle-earth fan as well?

Definitely! I love Lord of the Rings

my favorite characters are Merry and Pippin...although for some reason I do like Gollum.

TriciaG wrote: ↑
June 18th, 2020, 6:45 am

Bookworm360 wrote: ↑
June 17th, 2020, 9:36 pm
When does The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings(or Tolkien’s work in general) go into the public domain?
Add 96 to the original publication year. It'll be January 1 of that number year.

That's actually really helpful, Tricia, I don't have to ask when a specific book will be PD now

Bookworm360 · Post by **Bookworm360** » June 18th, 2020, 6:13 pm

mightyfelix wrote: ↑
June 18th, 2020, 6:38 am
Yes. 2033 for The Hobbit, if I'm not mistaken. And the Lord of the Rings was published several years after that.

I'm not sure what minor works of his were published earlier, and I don't have the time right more to look it up. We do actually have an early poem: https://librivox.org/author/1536 It was published while he was still a student at Oxford.

Whew. That’s not too long to wait for The Hobbit then, only 13 years!

Bookworm360 · Post by **Bookworm360** » June 26th, 2020, 2:29 pm

MNN42 wrote: ↑
October 7th, 2014, 1:07 pm
I would love to see The Neverending Story on Librivox

Me too. And also Momo. Apparently we’ll have to wait a while.

LGroden · Post by **LGroden** » August 17th, 2020, 3:07 pm

Hi, I was thinking about BCing an English translation of F. Chopin's letters. I found a collection on Archive.org that was published in 1931 in the US and that doesn't have any viewing limits (https://archive.org/details/chopinsletters00chop/page/112/mode/2up). The translator died in 1960. Do you know if this would be in the public domain?

Post by **annise** » August 17th, 2020, 3:42 pm

No - it was published in 1931 - you would need a translation published in 1924 or earlier . Translations get their own copyright.

Anne

LGroden · Post by **LGroden** » August 17th, 2020, 3:50 pm

I'll look around a bit more, then. Thanks!

Lawence1948 · Post by **Lawence1948** » December 27th, 2020, 11:02 pm

I really want to record Goodnight Mr. Tom by Magorian. It is not in the public domain. Is there a chance it could happen?

Post by **annise** » December 27th, 2020, 11:04 pm

When was it written ? if after 1925 no much unless it was a magazine which ceased publishing . Anne

Post by **Availle** » December 27th, 2020, 11:18 pm

"Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by English author Michelle Magorian, published [...] in 1981."

1981 + 92 -> public domain it the US not before 2076.

And with Ms. Magorian still happily alive, anybody outside the US will likely have to wait much longer until it is public domain in their country and legally record-able.

prosfilaes · Post by **prosfilaes** » December 28th, 2020, 12:43 am

Availle wrote: ↑
December 27th, 2020, 11:18 pm
"Goodnight Mister Tom is a children's novel by English author Michelle Magorian, published [...] in 1981."

1981 + 92 -> public domain it the US not before 2076.

And with Ms. Magorian still happily alive, anybody outside the US will likely have to wait much longer until it is public domain in their country and legally record-able.

It's likely to change by the time that get there, but starting in 1978, new works by living authors in the US got the whole life + 70 treatment, so this is planned to leave copyright at the same time in the US as in the UK. It might actually matter for Librivox, in that starting in 2003, all works are life+70, so recently published works of long-dead authors could be PD.