The magic of 1923

[kayray]

I've been activating lots of new forum accounts for people who have found us via articles about the addition to the Public Domain of works published in 1923!

It's lovely to know how many people think this is a Very Good Thing

Isn't it amazing to know that next year we'll have another crop of newly Public Domain books to choose from? It almost seems like a miracle! We've been here since 2005 without any additions to the PD, and I know that lots of us felt that what we had was all we would ever get -- surely the special interests would postpone that 2019 release date again as they had done before. And that was ok. There's still enough to keep us recording forever.

But now we can look forward to fresh additions to the Public Domain EVERY YEAR!

[Cori]

I'm still genuinely astonished by it. I really thought that that was it for US copyright. And, might still go that way I s'pose, but it's hard putting the toothpaste back into the tube.

[DACSoft]

It's great to see that the publicity of the restart of Public Domain additions has fostered new interest in LV.

IMO, the best thing about the restart of the yearly additions of Public Domain (PD) books and other intellectual property, is that one who wants to digitize, record or otherwise use books copyrighted in 1923, no longer has the burden of proof that these book are PD, since their 95 years of copyright protection has expired.

I've seen statistics that say about 85% of the books published in the U.S. between 1923 (now 1924) and 1963 have been in the Public Domain for years, because the copyright holders failed to renew their copyrights for an additional 28-year term, at the appropriate time, as they were required to do in the 1950's, 1960's, etc. However, the burden of proof fell to ebook distributors, producers, and the like to submit and/or retain proof that the copyright regs were not followed and that the books were in the Public Domain, which in many cases is quite onerous and difficult to determine.

Personally, I've successfully submitted a number of projects to Project Gutenberg (PG) for copyright clearance for books published in the mid-1920's and 1930's, with documentation of their PD status, that are now posted at PG.

But it is a huge relief that we no longer need to do detailed research on PD status of 1923 books, and next year, for 1924 books. Whew!

Caveat: I am not a lawyer, and post from my personal experience only.

FWIW,
Don

[Piotrek81]

A cursory YouTube search shows that some popular channels mentioned the 1923 breakthough (one example: the Top Tenz which made a list of 10 works entering the PD). That may have contributed as well.

[TriciaG]

I'm still genuinely astonished by it. I really thought that that was it for US copyright. And, might still go that way I s'pose, but it's hard putting the toothpaste back into the tube.

If I recall correctly, they were going to try to put the toothpaste back into the tube with the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. It would have made all TPP members have a Life+70 copyright, retroactively.

That part of the agreement was suspended, thank goodness!

[annise]

Yeh - we must be the only country that agreed

Anne

[mightyfelix]

I've been noticing quite a few new names on the forums lately, too, and can only suppose that it's due to the notice people are suddenly taking of public domain. Lots of new volunteers means lots of new one-minute tests, so I also headed over, for the first time in awhile, to check on a few of them. I'd like to be more helpful in that area than I have been lately. I have such a short attention span that I sometimes wonder how long I would have stuck around waiting, if I hadn't gotten feedback on my test within a few hours.

Anyway, it's always very exciting seeing new people get involved and stick around!