Some notes for myself...
and for other filmmakers out there.
If anyone wants to know anything about copyright laws and licensing materials, a new comic book (!) from the law school at Duke has made it very clear, I highly recommend this to all filmmakers, directors and producers and writers and editors and the like:
www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/2006/
Some highlights for those are are too lazy/busy to read through all 75 pages (I'm on page 30 and it's taken me awhile):
*Only works pre-1923 or produced by the government are clearly public domain.
*Term of protection if work is published post-1978= The life of the author plus 70 years
*If published 1923-1963, work is public 95 years after publication date. If published 1964-1977, work is public after life of author+70 years.
Moral of story, always always always check to see if the piece is in public domain, and if you're not sure, it most likely IS NOT.
Anyway, again, I highly recommend the webpage, it's entertaining, easy to read, and incredibly informative.
If anyone wants to know anything about copyright laws and licensing materials, a new comic book (!) from the law school at Duke has made it very clear, I highly recommend this to all filmmakers, directors and producers and writers and editors and the like:
www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/2006/
Some highlights for those are are too lazy/busy to read through all 75 pages (I'm on page 30 and it's taken me awhile):
*Only works pre-1923 or produced by the government are clearly public domain.
*Term of protection if work is published post-1978= The life of the author plus 70 years
*If published 1923-1963, work is public 95 years after publication date. If published 1964-1977, work is public after life of author+70 years.
Moral of story, always always always check to see if the piece is in public domain, and if you're not sure, it most likely IS NOT.
Anyway, again, I highly recommend the webpage, it's entertaining, easy to read, and incredibly informative.