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COPYRIGHT

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2025 1:22 pm
by sallieforth
Hello

I have just approached a publisher with new ideas/comic strips/stories adapted from work by well known authors/illustrators who have been dead for over 70 years. He said he liked my work but thought there would be copyright infringements. I believe the source material is in the public domain please help, thanks Sallie

Re: COPYRIGHT

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2025 6:13 pm
by AndyJ
Hi Sallie,

Was the publisher at all specific about why he thought copyright might be a problem? If you are sure that the authors whose work you want to adapt definitely died more than 70 years ago, I can't see any other reason for the publisher to be concerned. Even if the work any of the authors has recently been re-published that would not re-activate copyright in the original works. At most the new publication might enjoy copyright protection for its typographical layout or any added comment or notes contributed by an editor (see section 8 of the CDPA), but the actual works themselves lose copyright at midnight on the 31 December of the 70th year after the one in which the author/illustrator died.

Re: COPYRIGHT

Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2025 12:55 am
by IPProtection
Work could still be protected depending on the ‘2039 Rule’ which you can read up on here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... right-term

Eg: if the author died before 1969 but the work was unpublished as of the end of 1988, then the copyright doesn’t expire until 2039.

The 70 year following the death of the author rule was part of the revisions incorporated in the CDPA (1988) which came into effect on August 1, 1989.