Short answer. In the U.S.
Copyright for any kind of creative works is automatic, but it is
suggested that one place a notice, such as: Copyright 2016 by John
Doe
If one wants his/her work to be public domain, a notice of such must
be included, since copyright is automatic.
The work can be registered with the Copyright Office for another layer
of protection.
Upon expiration of the copyright, the work enters the public domain
and all or part can be used for any purpose by anyone.
Long Answer:
In the United States, works published before 1923 are all in the
public domain under the provisions of the Copyright Act of 1909 and
previous law. This act provided for an initial term of 28 years. This
term could be extended for an additional 28 years by registering
copyright renewal with the US copyright office.
Works published before 1964 in the US are all in the public domain,
excepting only those for which a renewal was registered with the US
copyright office. Relatively few works from this era have had their
copyrights renewed. A US copyright office study in 1961 found that
fewer than 15% of registered copyrights had been renewed.
The US Copyright Act of 1976 modified these provisions so that the
second, renewed term was 47 years. This extension applied to works
that had been copyrighted between 1950 and 1977 and were thus in their
first 28-year term of copyright protection, as well as to new works
copyrighted after 1977. The maximum term of copyright protection
became 75 years instead of the 56 years of the 1909 law, and applied
to works whose copyrights were renewed in 1978 or later.
Copyright renewal has largely lost its significance for works
copyrighted in the US in 1964 or after due to the Copyright Renewal
Act of 1992. This law removed the requirement that a second term of
copyright protection is contingent on a renewal registration. The
effect was that any work copyrighted in the US in 1964 or after had a
copyright term of 75 years, whether or not a formal copyright renewal
was filed. There are some legal reasons for filing such renewal
registrations. A further amendment to US copyright law in 1998
extended the total term of protection to 95 years, which now applies
to all works copyrighted in 1964 or after.
On Fri, 29 Jul 2016 06:26:04 +0700,
[email protected] wrote:
On Thu, 28 Jul 2016 07:58:30 -0500, Rick Morel
<rmorel@m*o*r*e*l*r.com> wrote:
That's correct. Once in public domain it cannot be copyrighted.
That's why Project Gutenberg for free ebooks out of copyright was
started.
I'm not clear on what this is about either. Skip, can you elaborate?
Rick
If I am not mistaken a "copyright" is a protection for the writer that
his work is sole his property for specific number of years thus in a
sense public domain doesn't enter into it. The copyright simply
expires so the work is no longer solely the property of the writer.
On Wed, 27 Jul 2016 06:12:54 -0600, Paul Cassel <[email protected]> >>wrote:
I think once something is in the public domain, it remains there and >>>cannot be copyrighted. I'm not clear on what this thread is about. It's >>>like it started in the middle.
-paul
On 7/27/2016 6:04 AM, Flying Pig wrote:
From an earlier post on the subject...
I don't think public domain allows copyrighting by somebody else, does it? >>>>
L8R
Skip
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