Legal Question in Entertainment Law in New York

Re: Public Domain

generally, a copyright lasts for the life of an author, plus seventy years. However this was not the case before the copyright act of 1976 went into effect.

Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured either on the date a work was published or on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished form. In either case, the copyright lasted for a first term of 28 years from the date it was secured. The copyright was eligible for renewal during the last (28th) year of the first term. If renewed, the copyright was extended for a second term of 28 years.1 If not renewed, the copyright expired at the end of the first 28-year term. The term of copyright for works published with a year date in the notice that is earlier than the actual date of publication is computed from the year date in the copyright notice.

It should also be noted that for a number of copyrights, the second term was extended beyond 28 years by special legislation.

For more information go to:

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.html