COPYRIGHTED WORKS ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

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V22 2019 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 22, Number 1, January 6, 2019, Article 7

COPYRIGHTED WORKS ENTERING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

Happy New Year! Or shall we say, Happy Entering-the-Public-Domain Year? This article summarizes the history of copyrights in the U.S., and notes that all music, literature and films released in 1923 are now in the public domain and freely available for use. -Editor

For the first time in more than two decades, an entire year's worth of copyrighted works will enter the public domain.

All music, literature and films released in 1923 will be freely available for you to adapt, remix and reuse as you see fit starting Jan. 1.

They include Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" and Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," along with works from Aldous Huxley and Edith Wharton.

You can also expect Google Books to offer the full text of books from that period and the Internet Archive to add 1923 works to its online library.

Over the next couple of decades, you're going to see films like "Gone With the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz," "Casablanca" and "Citizen Kane," along with comic book characters like Batman and Superman, entering the public domain, Zerner pointed out.

"We are now living in a new world starting Jan 1. The clock is ticking," he said.

So what does this have to do with numismatics? Well, the Newman Numismatic Portal can only provide full access to documents in the public domain, or those for which the copyright owners have explicitly permitted such access. Now all numismatic literature published in 1923 (books, periodicals, auction catalogs etc.) is fair game for hosting on NNP with no agreement required - for example, Malcolm Storer's Numismatics of Massachusetts, published by the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Going forward, the bar will advance each year with 1924 works becoming available in 2020, and so on). -Editor

To read the complete article, see:
Copyrighted works are entering the public domain for the first time in 20 years (https://www.marketplace.org/2018/12/28/business/public-domain-day-2019)

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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