by peterd » Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:58 pm
Locating U.K. Copyright Holders
The meaning of copyright
Copyright is a property right, which authors hold in respect of works which they have created. As a property right (it is often described being an "intellectual property"), copyright can be bought, sold, leased or mortgaged. Copyright confers an exclusive right to exploit an original work. Exploitation in this sense includes the following: copying, publication, reproduction, quotation, performance, translation, adaptation, dramatisation, broadcasting on radio or television, filming, and making available by a computer service or network.
The extent of copyright
Copyright automatically covers almost all original written works. Although copyright legislation often refers to "literary works", copyright applies regardless of the quality of the writing. Copyright subsists in both published and unpublished works, and extends to manuscripts, single scraps of paper, and private correspondence. Published works which have been deemed sufficiently original to be copyright-protected include advertisements; football pools coupons; sheets of election results; lists of Stock Exchange prices; and an alphabetical list of British railway stations. Copyright is time-limited, normally remaining in force for a certain number of years post mortem auctoris (after the author's death, often written as p.m.a.).
The duration of copyright
The time period for copyright has grown continually longer over the last three centuries. Many think it is now absurdly long. In Britain the Copyright Act of 1842 introduced the idea of post mortem copyright protection; it established a copyright period of 42 years from the date of first publication or 7 years after the author's death, whichever was the longer. The Copyright Act of 1911 extended the period to 50 years after an author's death; and the European Union Directive on Term of Copyright (adopted by the UK on 1 January 1996) further extended the standard period to 70 years p.m.a. Thus in 2009 works by authors who died in 1939 or any year thereafter remain "in copyright".
"Revived copyright"
As a result of the European Union Directive, published works of authors who died between 1 January 1926 and 31 December 1945 came back into copyright on 1 January 1996. These authors, including some of the great names of English literature, had been out of copyright since the end of the year of the 50th anniversary of their death and returned to copyright for whatever remains of the period until the end of the year of the 70th anniversary of their death. The published works of Virginia Woolf, for example, came out of copyright on 1 January 1992 but have gone back into copyright for the period from 1 January 1996 to 31 December 2011.
so basiclly if he died before 1938 then copyright finishes in 1989 50 years afterwards
if ne died in 1939 then its 2010 and so on think ive got it right ?
any idea when he died ?