🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <17759@umd5.umd.edu> mark@roissy.umd.edu (Mark Sienkiewicz) writes:
>p.s.  I've seen code that says "Copyright 1973 Bell Telephone Laboratories
>Inc".  Under the old copyright law, shouldn't that be expired by now?

Under the Copyright Act of 1909, which was in effect in 1973, the
term of a copyright was 28 years from the date of first publication.
The copyright could be renewed for another 28-year term.  If the work
was not published, it was not copyrightable under the 1909 Act, but was
protected by common law copyright.

Under the transitional provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, if a
copyright under the 1909 act was in its first term, it could be renewed
for second 47 year term (giving a total term of 75 years, the same as
for anonymous works or works-for-hire under the 1976 Act.)  That means
that if the copyright owner renewed in 1990 (27 years after 1973), the
copyright will run until 2037.

If the work was unpublished and not copyrighted (from the legislative
history, this seems to mean covered by the Copyright Act of 1909, not
common law copyright), the term of the copyright under the 1976 Act
is 75 years from January 1, 1978, or December 31, 2052.  (The 1976 Act
extended Federal statuatory copyright to all unpublished works as if
they were created on the effective date of the Act -- January 1, 1978.)

Anyway, it's probably a long time before the copyright expires ...