Question about Public Domain

[jimflint1]

Hi,

My editor is concerned about some quotes I used to illustrate conflict from Jack London's classic short story "To Build a Fire". I believe this story to be in public domain--but do you know of any easy (and inexpensive--the Library of Congress Copyright office charges $75 bucks an hour, or you can visit their office and search for free--but I'm nowhere near there.) way to find this out so I can ease her mind on the matter?

Any help would be appreciated very much.

Shane

[Medievalist]

IANAL Disclaimer

Since IANAL I have no opinion about what is or is not public domain. Read Jaws, who is a lawyer, and one who knows an obscene amount about copyright and offers this useful page of public domain dates (http://www.authorslawyer.com/c-term.shtml).

I'm accustomed to checking publication dates, so I did that. London, an American, died in 1916.

The short story “To Build a Fire” was first published in a sort of expurgated version for children in Youth’s Companion, May 29, 1902. This was a magazine directed at teens.

The complete, unexpurgated version, was published in The Century Magazine of August 1908, and then again with minor changes in London's short story collection Lost Face in two printings in 1910, with very minor corrections.

You'll note all the dates are before January 1, 1923.

[jimflint1]

Thanks. That is helpful.

Shane

[Torgo]

IANAL again, but you might well be OK with Jack London. Here's a link to Wikipedia's article on the weaselly Sony Bono Copyright act, a triumph for Disney's lawyers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Bono_Copyright_Term_Extension_Act.

[blacbird]

Jim,

Medievalist is correct. I run a free website (http://www.litrix.com) wherein is a large collection of public domain literature, including London's story, which is in public domain. The key positive provision of the otherwise evil Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998 is the statement that works already in public domain will remain in public domain. Thereby, anything published in the U.S. prior to 1923 is in public domain.

bird

[Jaws]

Thereby, anything published in the U.S. prior to 1923 is in public domain.Almost, but not quite, correct.

Anything published in the US prior to 1923 is in the public domain: in the US, but not necessarily in its country of origin or elsewhere,
unless it is one of the limited class works originally published overseas by non-American authors that fell into the public domain prior to 1998 for technical lapses, as opposed to expiration of the copyright period, in the US
That said, Jack London's works don't fall into that, so his works published before 01 January 1923 are in the public domain in the US. However, if someone uncovers a trove of previously unpublished story drafts, there are other rules of copyright law that will apply. For example, one of Shakespeare's plays may be in copyright in the US, because the published version of it was only "discovered" in the 1990s and first published then (leaving aside attribution and alternate-edition problems, which make the whole thing a real headache).

[jimflint1]

A big thanks to all of you.

Cheers,

Shane