RE: Copyright / Old Journals

[Ed Barnas <ebarnas@cup.org>]

         Reply to:   RE: Copyright / Old Journals
Eric,

Works published before 1978 are subject to the old 1909 copyright law
under which copyright had to be renewed in the 28th year of the initial
term or the work would fall into public domain (and who had the right to
renew in the 28th year was clearly defined). However, a host of recent
acts and amendments have thrown in automatic renewals and term extensions
which, with the recent Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, could bring the
copyright term of some of these works up to ninety-five years from initial
publication.

I'd suggest checking out the circulars available from the Copyright office
via the web at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/circs/, especially circs.
15, 21, 22 and sl15.

As for the "crux" of the question, my understanding is that the
institution that published the journal (assuming it owns the copyright to
the title) can give copyright clearance for the "collected work" (the
journal issue) but may not necessarily have the right to grant permission
for individual articles within that issue.

- Ed Barnas
Journals Manager, CUP

Eric Weig wrote:
>Hello,
>
>The University of Kentucky Libraries are currently in the early stages of
>a digitization project that will involve encoding old and obscure
>Appalachian journals for presentation on the World Wide Web.  One question
>we have concerning copyright, is how to clear copyright for an entire
>journal issue or set of issues that has multiple authors' works.  Many of
>the journals date back to before the 1930s.  The authors may no longer be
>living.  Also, many of the authors are obscure figures who would be next
>to impossible to locate today.
>
>So, the crux of my question is whether or not the institution that
>published the journal can give copyright clearance for all the works
>within the journal, or if copyright needs to be considered for individual
>articles within a particular journal issue.
>
>Eric Weig
>Electronic Resources Librarian
>2-1 William T. Young Library
>University of Kentucky
>Lexington, KY 40506
>eweig@pop.uky.edu
>(606)257-0500x2106