the legal right, which the creator of an original work has, to only allow copying of the work with permission and sometimes on payment of royalties or a copyright fee ⃞ work which is out of copyright work by a writer who has been dead for fifty years ⃞ work still in copyright, which is covered by copyright work by a living writer, or by a writer who has not been dead for fifty years ■verb to confirm the copyright of a written work by inserting a copyright notice and publishing the work The book was copyrighted in the UK
â– adjective covered by the laws of copyright It is illegal to photocopy a copyright work.
COMMENT: Copyright lasts for 50 years after the author\'s death according to the Berne Convention, and for 25 years according to the Universal Copyright Convention. In the USA, copyright is for 50 years after the death of an author for books published after January 1st, 1978. For books published before that date, the original copyright was for 28 years after the death of the author, and this can be extended for a further 28 year period up to a maximum of 75 years. In 1995, the European Union adopted a copyright term of 70 years after the death of the author. The copyright holder has the right to refuse or to grant permission to copy copyright material, though under the Paris agreement of 1971, the original publishers (representing the author or copyright holder) must, under certain circumstances, grant licences to reprint copyright material. The copyright notice has to include the symbol ©, the name of the copyright holder and the date of the copyright (which is usually the date of first publication). The notice must be printed in the book and usually appears on the reverse of the title page. A copyright notice is also printed on other forms of printed material such as posters. A change in 1995 of the term of copyright in the European Union has created problems for publishers and copyright holders, in cases where the author died more than fifty years but less than seventy years ago. In effect, such authors have returned to copyright, and royalties, etc., are due to their estates until the seventy year term expires. This applies to well-known authors such as Beatrix Potter and James Joyce, as well as to composers, such as Elgar. |
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