[ESPERANTO] Por recenzo!, by K. R. C. Sturmer

komponisto · Post by **komponisto** » March 30th, 2012, 3:38 am

Por recenzo!, by K. R. C. Sturmer (1903-1960), was published in 1930 in London. The author did not renew his copyright claims, and there are no later editions other than the original, which gives that the book is (probably?) in the PD.

A PDF scan of the book is available here, and a corrected HTML version here.

As a new reader, I'd very much like to do this book — but since you recommend newbies not to go solo, I thought that I'll post a suggestion here first.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 30th, 2012, 6:07 am

If it was published in London, the chances are that it is still under copyright. The necessity of renewal basically applies only to works published in the USA by an American author. The author of this work was certainly British.

There are a few exceptions to this, but the only one I can think of which might be relevant here is if it was published in the USA within 30 days of first being published outside the US. If this wasn't the case, then in my (admittedly lay person's) opinion, this will remain under copyright in the US for 95 years after publication.

Ruth

komponisto · Post by **komponisto** » March 30th, 2012, 7:00 am

Ah, I see.

So this guide has to become more specific, I guess?

It doesn't mention anything about such things as nation of origin and so on.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » March 30th, 2012, 8:15 am

I might well have the wrong end of the stick, but I don't think the nation of author's origin matters ... my understanding is that it's simply most common that American authors first publish in the US, British ones in the UK, and so on. And here, the chances of a British author publishing in London are very high; publishing again within a month in the US seems less likely. Not at all impossible, but without that fact proven, and the subsequent requirement for US copyright renewal not to have been met ... this wouldn't be eligible to record here.

As far as I know, I've never seen a book here that fitted these criteria -- which is not to say that they don't exist -- more that it's a really difficult set of circumstances to accomplish.

komponisto · Post by **komponisto** » March 30th, 2012, 9:05 am

So, what actually matters is that it was published in the UK? The US-American copyright will therefore expire whenever the UK copyright does so, or do we have to wait until 2025?

Cori · Post by **Cori** » March 30th, 2012, 9:27 am

It'll expire in the US on 1st Jan 2026 (95 complete years after first publication.) The US doesn't care when the UK copyright expires -- there isn't a Rule of Shorter Term which helps us Brits out when US copyrights expire. It's all very exasperating, and what's more, if the US law doesn't change again before then, I'll eat my keyboard.

European & UK law doesn't help much either ... in these countries, copyright expires on 1st Jan 2041, 70 complete years after the author's death. So if you live there, or for listeners listening there, being able to record / hear the recording is a really really long time away.