Traditional Nursery Rhymes & Copyright

[Snitchcat]

Hi, Everyone!

I did a search, but couldn't find anything regarding this topic, so I thought I'd post.

The question:

Are traditional nursery rhymes in the public domain, or are they still copyrighted?


Many thanks in advance!

Take care,
Snitch.

[moondance]

Gut instinct says they're in the public domain, but I have no legal knowledge of it. I guess it depends when they were written - isn't the copyright period 75 years? So anything written over 75 years ago is public property?

[Nakhlasmoke]

Maybe have a look and see if they're available on Project Gutenberg, in which case, as far as I know, they're public domain.

[Jamesaritchie]

Gut instinct says they're in the public domain, but I have no legal knowledge of it. I guess it depends when they were written - isn't the copyright period 75 years? So anything written over 75 years ago is public property?

No, copyright is life of the writer PLUS seventy-five years. In other words, copyright lasts for seventy-five years after the writer dies.

But you're close. Because of some changes in the copyright law, anything written before 1923 is in public domain.

[K1P1]

No, copyright is life of the writer PLUS seventy-five years. In other words, copyright lasts for seventy-five years after the writer dies.

But you're close. Because of some changes in the copyright law, anything written before 1923 is in public domain.

I believe that this is just US copyright law.

[Torgo]

Always check whatever you're using. You'd be surprised what is still in copyright; for example, "I'm a little teapot" isn't PD yet.

[cwgranny]

Many things that we "think" are traditional nursery rhymes aren't really that old (as Torgo pointed out) so always check to be sure you aren't thinking something is a traditional nursery rhyme when it's a more modern invention. But the real traditional nursery rhymes are public domain (which is why you see so many mass market $1 kid books at places like grocery stores and such that are just illustrated nursery rhymes -- they didn't have to pay for the rhyme)

[Snitchcat]

Thanks for the great answers everyone.

I did check out Project Gutenberg and got suitably confused. :p Anyhow, will check each nursery rhyme I do use -- no sense in getting sued for copyright. (^_^)

Thanks again!

[Jamesaritchie]

I believe that this is just US copyright law.

Yes, but the variants are slim. In the UK, for example, copyright is life of the author plus seventy years, instead of seventy-five as it is here. Since the UK is a member of the EU, and all EU members must follow the same copyright treat, I believe this is the law for all EU members.

Copryright law has been the subject of international treay for quite a few years now, so while there are variations, they're usulally very slight.