Extended copyright

[ffutures]

Can anyone point me at a list of works that have unusual British or European copyright status (such as Peter Pan)?

The reason I'm asking is that it appears that the copyright in Police Code was given to a police charity when its author died; I have no reason to believe that it was then given any unusual status, but it would be nice to be sure.

Later Now sorted thanks to major_clanger

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

According to Copinger and Skone James on Copyright, the leading professional text on the matter, it seems that the special exception to the rule against perpetual copyright granted to Peter Pan is unique within English law. Strictly speaking, as the authors note, this is not a true copyright but rather a statutory licence imposed on open-ended terms, but even so it's still the only one out there.

There's no reason why the copyright in the Police Code couldn't have been assigned to a charity (or probably its trustees) on the death of the author. Copyrights are hereditable, meaning you can leave them in your will to someone; alternatively you can assign them in writing. But that wouldn't change the point at which the work fell out of copyright.

The rules for when copyright expired for works created under the previous Copyright Acts can get rather complicated. However, if the author has been dead for more than 70 years then you can safely say that it is out of copyright by now.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - hadn't realised that Peter Pan was the only one. It looks like the author and the other main contributor were already dead in 1912, and editorial copyright should also be long expired, so I'm presumably OK.

Just passing through the I's and cheery stuff like Incest, Infectious diseases, and Insanity, with a horribly complicated section on Intoxicating Liquor that's 9 pages long looming large on the horizon. About half way through the main text, which is a lot faster than I expected, and with luck I'll have it on line next week.