LibriVox Forum

The New Year is always a fun time and a motivation for people to take stock of things, so to speak, but this year is especially exciting for us, because it's the first time in 20 years that any books will enter the public domain in the US! That's right, that means that this is the first time ever in the history of LibriVox that we'll be able to record some books next year that we couldn't record this year! To commemorate, I thought I'd pull together a podcast as a celebration (or release party, as my husband called it)!

If you want to participate, please record a short snippet of yourself, discussing the following:

• How do you plan to ring in the new year?
• What 1923 book(s), if any, are you most excited about? What is it about it/them that interests you? Do you plan to record it/them as a solo or start a group project? (This is mainly what I'll try to focus on!)
• Do you have any LV goals for the coming year, or did you set any goals in 2018 that you'd like to review?
• Anything else you'd like to share?

This can be as long or as short as you like, but either way, understand that I may not be able to use your entire recording. I'll keep all the juicy bits, though!

• Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader
  
  (If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
• You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: Cori

Once your file is finished uploading, please post the link here. I'll try to have everything ready to go by December 31st, but I think that if you submit your contributions by the 29th, that will give me enough time to put everything together.

And we already have our first submission, from SonOfTheExiles!

https://librivox.org/uploads/xx-nonproject/podcast_nye_2018_sote_prologue.mp3

(Copied this over from the thread where I first suggested this podcast.)

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 15th, 2018, 11:20 pm The New Year is always a fun time and a motivation for people to take stock of things, so to speak, but this year is especially exciting for us, because it's the first time in 20 years that any books will enter the public domain in the US!

Is there a list of books that go PD in 2019? I'd certainly like to see it.

Anything that was published in 1923 will enter Public Domain on January 1st. I don't know if it's possible to compile a completely comprehensive list, but here are a couple that you may find interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_in_literature
https://www.goodreads.com/book/popular_by_date/1923

(Note that there are a few Agatha Christie works on this list, but we still won't be able to record those. Here's why (copied from this thread):

Books by Agatha Christie -- only her first two books, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary are in the US public domain. Both have been recorded for LibriVox, but her estate disputed the legality of that, since the site was founded (and the domain name owned) by a Canadian. Christie's estate had taken an issue with this technicality and approached Hugh. LV was threatened with legal action at the time if we did not remove the recordings -- even though the files were stored in the US, as all our files are, at archive.org. Since Christie died in 1976, her works will be PD in Canada at the start of 2027, and LibriVox should be safe to record all her works published before 1932 (because US copyright law is in play too, of course -- covering everything published 95+ years before 2027.)

It's exciting but please remember you will still need an etext from a trusted source or a scan showing the publication date, just as you need now, Because these lists say it's PD doesn't automatically make every copy of it PD,

Anne

annise wrote: ↑December 16th, 2018, 10:52 pm It's exciting but please remember you will still need an etext from a trusted source or a scan showing the publication date, just as you need now, Because these lists say it's PD doesn't automatically make every copy of it PD,

Anne

Yes, I'm planning to discuss that as part of the podcast as well. Thanks for the reminder!

Unless you're specifically concentrating on things entering PD in the US, an alternative wikipedia page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_public_domain which provides new PD information to other jurisdictions. Sadly, I've not spotted a page of things PD in the US now entering PD in death+70 or vice versa...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_public_domain

Cheers,
Paul

I was just going through the Polish-language Wikipedia trying to figure out which works by Polish authors enter public domain both in US (published in 1923) and in Poland/EU (author died in 1948). Not an easy task...

Piotrek81 wrote: ↑December 18th, 2018, 8:14 am I was just going through the Polish-language Wikipedia trying to figure out which works by Polish authors enter public domain both in US (published in 1923) and in Poland/EU (author died in 1948). Not an easy task...

What would be helpful would be if one of the large libraries had this indexed in a publicly accessible database so we could just run queries on it. Better yet if as well as publication dates and authors' death dates it also included information on translator death dates which I've found phenomenally difficult to track down. Oi Santa - are you listening? Such a database exists - clearly, the library of the University where I work has access to such a beast - but I suspect it's rather expensive.

Mind you, my to-read pile is plenty big enough to keep me going for a few years at my current slow production rate...

Hi Devorah,
Here's my submission:


https://librivox.org/uploads/cori/newyear2019_emilyofnewmoon_mightyfelixpodcast.mp3

I couldn't find anything that told me what to name my file, so I've made up a name- hope that's okay

Thanks for the invitation, it is much appreciated!
By the way, I've included a short summary of Emily of New Moon, so you can find out what it's about

Best,
JayKitty

That was quick, thank you! Your file name will work fine. I'll let you know when the podcast is ready.

OK, thank you, Devorah

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 15th, 2018, 11:20 pm but this year is especially exciting for us, because it's the first time in 20 years that any books will enter the public domain in the US!.

20 years? I thought nothing has entered PD in the US since 1979 (when everything from 1922 reached its 56-year copyright limit, and before everything 1923+ had that limit extended to 75 and then 95 years)

ZamesCurran wrote: ↑December 24th, 2018, 1:08 pm

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 15th, 2018, 11:20 pm but this year is especially exciting for us, because it's the first time in 20 years that any books will enter the public domain in the US!.

20 years? I thought nothing has entered PD in the US since 1979 (when everything from 1922 reached its 56-year copyright limit, and before everything 1923+ had that limit extended to 75 and then 95 years)

Oh, I don't know! I just know that it was in 1998 that it went from 75 to 95. I didn't realize that there had been a freeze on even before that!

EDIT: Would you care to submit a brief recording, explaining this process?

ZamesCurran wrote: ↑December 24th, 2018, 1:08 pm

mightyfelix wrote: ↑December 15th, 2018, 11:20 pm but this year is especially exciting for us, because it's the first time in 20 years that any books will enter the public domain in the US!.

20 years? I thought nothing has entered PD in the US since 1979 (when everything from 1922 reached its 56-year copyright limit, and before everything 1923+ had that limit extended to 75 and then 95 years)

This article Public Domain Day 2019 to Mark End of Copyright "Freeze" may help explain the "20-year" freeze, particularly:

In 1998, Congress again extended the maximum term of copyright protection, adding an additional 20 years. The Great American Novel, and other works published in 1923, were thus protected through 2019*. Works published in 1922 were not subject to this extension and would be allowed to enter the public domain in 1998, hence the twenty-year freeze.

*Poster's Note: should read "through 2018" as 1923 works become Public Domain in the U.S. on Jan. 1st, 2019.

FWIW, (and IANAL)