A little fuzzy on the concept of public domain? When an author's copyright expires, his or her works enter the public domain where they can be used for any purpose without prior permission.
Copyright usually extends from the life of the author plus a certain number of years after his or her death (or pma: post mortem auctoris). In the United States and the European Union, the copyright terms for authors expire 70 years pma; in Canada and New Zeland, copyright ends 50 years pma.
The intellectual property rights enshrined in copyright are complex, but genealogists (and their research) can benefit in particular from an understanding of public domain. Probably the most obvious benefit is the ability to use privately published family histories that were written by authors who died 70 or more years ago.
Genealogists also understand that works deserve proper attribution and citation, even if those works are in the public domain and do not require prior permission for use.
To learn more, visit www.publicdomainday.org. The About page notes:
"Public Domain Day is an initiative of COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, with special support from the Open Knowledge Foundation (UK) and the Center for the Study of Public Domain
at Duke University (USA). Our aim is to raise worldwide awareness about
the role of the public domain in our societies and to provide resources
and information. Please feel free to browse our website and related
links and pages - to find greater inspiration and enjoy the creative and
entrepreneurial freedom granted to everybody by the public domain."
Oh, and if you're related to:
- Isaac Babel
- Walter Benjamin
- John Buchan
- Mikhail Bulgakov
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Emma Goldman
- Paul Klee
- Selma Lagerlof
- Leon Trotsky
- Vito Volterra
- Nathanael West
And now a Happy New Year to all my readers and the very best to you in your family research in the year to come.
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