[LINK] copyright question for you

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Sun Apr 29 18:37:05 AEST 2012


At 18:12 +1000 29/4/12, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
>Also, Gutenberg Australia has some notes specific to the local situation:
>http://gutenberg.net.au/submissions.html
>
>>  Under Australian copyright law, literary, dramatic, andmusical work
>>  published, performed, communicated, or recorded and offered for sale
>>  in an author's lifetime are, if the author died in or before 1954,
>>  protected for the life of the author plus fifty years from the end of
>>  the year of the author's death. Therefore, for a work to be in the
>>  "public domain" in Australia, it is only necessary that the author
>>  died in or before 1954 and that the work was published (not
>>  necessarily in Australia) during her/his lifetime.
>
>This is important: "and offered for sale in an author's lifetime". For
>something that was not published at the time of the author's death, I do
>not know the copyright situation.

I didn't think the act of 'publishing' was relevant.

This is (as usual) unnecessarily complex legislative drafting, but it 
seems to be in line with what I thought:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s32.html

 From a quick Google, see also:
http://www.acmi.net.au/PAML/toolbox/cr_exp.htm#5

_______________________________________________________________________

>On 29/04/12 6:01 PM, sylvano wrote:
>>  The Gutenberg provides some info to help explore copyright reality...
>>
>>  http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To
>>
>>  IANAL
>>  Sylvano
>>
>>  On 29/04/2012, at 5:38 PM, Roger Clarke<Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au>  wrote:
>>
>>>  At 16:25 +1000 29/4/12, Kim Holburn wrote:
>>>>  I have a strange copyright question for those of you that might
>>>>  know.  Someone wants to publish writings of someone who died in 1927
>>>>  with no descendants.  Some of her work was published in 1985 and
>>>>  some is yet unpublished.
>>>>  As I understand it, (and IANAL) copyright starts from the moment a
>>>>  work is published, but it belongs to the author or the author's
>>>>  descendants.  Does this apply even if the author died so long ago
>>>>  and what happens if the author had no descendants?
>>>>  Also this author is Australian and lived in Australia.  Now if her
>>>>  work is going to be published in the UK how does that change things?
>>>  I wonder if copyright.com.au offers a ready-reckoner ...
>>>
>>>  IANAL and this simple answer is very probably *wrong* - but may help
>>>  tempt someone who actually knows what they're talking about to do the
>>>  sums  (%-|}
>>>
>>>  1.  Whether there were descendants or not is irrelevant.
>>>  2.  Who the ownership vested in is irrelevant.
>>>  3.  Death of the author plus 50 years, at that time = 1977 expiry.
>>>  4.  Subsequent extension to 70 years not retrospective to that work.
>>>
>>>  So it's open for publication, i.e. 'in the public domain'.
>>>
>>>  --
>>>  Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
>>>
>>>  Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
>>>                      Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
>>>  mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/
>>>
>>>  Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
>>>  Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University
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>
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-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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