Do the copyright restrictions change based on geographies ?

Mrane · Post by **Mrane** » October 11th, 2017, 10:25 am

Hi,
I am new to volunteering at librivox and I have a question about works in the public domain. If there is a poem up for reading/recording does it mean that that text is in the public domain irrespective of geographies ? I live in India, so I am not sure if books/texts/poems that are in the public domain in the USA are also in the public domain in India. Is there anything that I should be verifying before recording ? If yes, how ?

Thanks.

Post by **TriciaG** » October 11th, 2017, 11:18 am

Yes, copyright restrictions change based on your location.

If a project is in progress, it's Public Domain in the USA.

India appears to be a Life+60 country (except posthumous works). So on the project page for projects in progress and on the catalog page for finished recordings, look at the death year of the author and translator (if there is one). Anyone who died in 1956 or before are Public Domain for you. Anyone who died in 1957 or after is still under copyright for you.

Mrane · Post by **Mrane** » October 11th, 2017, 11:47 am

Thank you for the quick response

So, I believe that each time I am recording something for a new project, I need to verify the year in which the author and translator died (if it's not a posthumous work). If the year is before 1956, I can safely do the recording. If not, I should refrain from recording.

Is that correct ?

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » October 12th, 2017, 1:54 am

I may be wrong, but I think if the text is on Gutenberg.org it means it is OK for the US, and you are recording it to be placed on a US server, so should be OK.

Do NOT take this a gospel though, others may correct my statement.

Post by **annise** » October 12th, 2017, 3:48 am

There is a considerable degree of uncertainty about the legalities, we do try to state at the start of each project thread when something may not be PD for readers not living in the USA. Most of us choose not to risk it being illegal but we are not lawyers even , let alone international copyright ones , and we expect people not residing in the USA to do their own checking, whether as readers or listeners.

Anne

Mrane · Post by **Mrane** » October 12th, 2017, 6:12 am

annise wrote:There is a considerable degree of uncertainty about the legalities, we do try to state at the start of each project thread when something may not be PD for readers not living in the USA. Most of us choose not to risk it being illegal but we are not lawyers even , let alone international copyright ones , and we expect people not residing in the USA to do their own checking, whether as readers or listeners.

Anne

What's PD ?

I do agree with you on the point that it is individuals responsibility to check if a work is in public domain in their country of residence. However, could you please let me know how to go about it ? I made a note of pointers given by TriciaG. Is there more to it ? How do you guys (not residing in the USA) go about it ?

Thanks

Post by **TriciaG** » October 12th, 2017, 6:19 am

Mrane wrote:Thank you for the quick response

So, I believe that each time I am recording something for a new project, I need to verify the year in which the author and translator died (if it's not a posthumous work). If the year is before 1956, I can safely do the recording. If not, I should refrain from recording.

Is that correct ?

Yes, this is correct. On January 1, 2018, your cutoff year will be 1957.

lurcherlover wrote:I may be wrong, but I think if the text is on Gutenberg.org it means it is OK for the US, and you are recording it to be placed on a US server, so should be OK.

Do NOT take this a gospel though, others may correct my statement.

This is incorrect. If you record something that is not PD in the country in which you are recording, you are breaking copyright law in that country. So each LibriVoxer should follow the copyright laws in the country they're in.

What's PD ?

PD = Public Domain, or expired copyright with no restrictions on the use of the text.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » October 12th, 2017, 7:43 am

lurcherlover wrote:I may be wrong, but I think if the text is on Gutenberg.org it means it is OK for the US, and you are recording it to be placed on a US server, so should be OK.

TriciaG wrote:This is incorrect. If you record something that is not PD in the country in which you are recording, you are breaking copyright law in that country. So each LibriVoxer should follow the copyright laws in the country they're in.

Just to add, that some Gutenberg texts do have copyrights of some kind still and are therefore not okay for LibriVox (e.g. Cory Doctorow's books which use Creative Commons licencing) -- you need to check the 'bibrec' tab for the book to be absolutely sure. They state outright whether something is Public Domain or has copyright limitations of some kind.

lurcherlover · Post by **lurcherlover** » October 12th, 2017, 9:04 am

This is all a bit of a nightmare - but I suppose if we are given the go-ahead by LV, then it's probably OK.

The problem is that we might listen to something that is PD in the US but not so in the UK?

Post by **TriciaG** » October 12th, 2017, 9:08 am

The problem is that we might listen to something that is PD in the US but not so in the UK?

Yes. That's why all of our catalog pages have the statement: "LibriVox recordings are Public Domain in the USA. If you are not in the USA, please verify the copyright status of these works in your own country before downloading, otherwise you may be violating copyright laws." And that's why we try to put the warning on the top of current projects that a certain project might not be PD for people elsewhere, when the death dates are 70 years ago or sooner.