Old Book but No Proof

[DariaAM]

Let’s imagine that someone purchased a book that clearly looked old. The author is in the public domain, and the owner of the book wants to read it for LibriVox. The title was first published in 1914, but their book doesn’t have a year of copyright. Is it still possible for that person to record that story using their book as the source? For your info, some older books don’t have the copyright year printed.

[TriciaG]

We'd have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

We'd need photos of the title page and verso, and any other pages inside that would indicate its age. And in this case, maybe a picture of the front cover.

[DariaAM]

I’m thinking of a specific book, and it’s from the Religious Tract Society. The publishing house was founded in 1799 and it was defunct in 1935. It sounds very likely that it is in the PD. Yes?

[TriciaG]

It sounds likely, yes.