Skip to main content

copyright - When will books by Edgar Rice Burroughs enter the public domain?


I recently started reading the public domain Barsoom novels (I'm on Thuvia, Maid of Mars at the moment) and I'm planning on reading the rest of the novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but some are in the public domain and some are not. As such, if anyone has any clue as to when each of his books will enter the public domain that would be rather useful information for me (assuming that public domain laws do not change between now and then).



Answer



In the US


According to this source, for works published between 1923 and 1963 where the copyright has been renewed, copyright expires 95 years after the publication date. From Wikipedia, "Chessmen of Mars" (1922) should be the last in public domain; the Barsoom books published between 1928 and 1963 will enter public domain between 2023 (Master Mind of Mars, 1928) and 2043 (!!: Llana of Gathol, 1948).


I'm not 100% sure the copyrights have been renewed but I strongly suspect they have because ERB established Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. to control his intellectual property. (ERB Inc has also been fighting to prevent adaptations and other use of ERB characters and settings that are already in public domain (under trademark law), but that presumably won't affect the ability to reprint/publish the works as is.)


In the UK (?)


(according to this site) copyright is life+70 years = 2020.


In Canada


Again from here copyright expires in Canada at life+50 years=2000. On the other hand, Burroughs' works do not appear on the Project Gutenberg Canada site.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

Which Doctor Who works are canon?

I have been watching a Doctor Who documentary and they mentioned that Paul McGann did audio stories so he wasn't just a one-hit Doctor (and that there are novels featuring his Doctor as well). My question is: is Doctor Who canon just the show, or is it like Star Wars where some books and audios are canon and some are not? The documentary also shows that before 2005 they did audio stories where the Doctor is female and obviously that cannot be — not the female part, but the show doesn't count any female Doctors in episodes like The Day of the Doctor . Answer Nothing, and also everything The definitive piece of writing on Doctor Who canon is this blog post by writer Paul Cornell . I'm essentially going to be summarizing his post here, much less eloquently, but one section I want to quote directly is this: Nobody at the BBC has ever uttered a pronouncement about what is and isn't canonical. (As I'm sure they'd put it, being such enthusiasts for good grammar.) Be...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more