How Long Does a Copyright Last?

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Photo by Kamal Hamid is licensed under CC 2.0. *

If you are the creator of an original work or you are looking to utilize the work of another, you may wonder, “How long a copyright lasts?”

Once copyrights expire, the original works generally enter into the public domain, thereby allowing anyone to utilize them without fear of an infringement suit. Determining how long a copyright lasts is relatively straightforward in theory but can be difficult in practice.

Different rules apply to different circumstances, and so in the post that follows, I will seek to explain how long such protections endure.

How Long Does a Copyright Last for Modern Works?

The answer to this question can depend on when the work was originally created. A work originally created on or after January 1, 1978 receives automatic protection from the moment of its creation until 70 years following the death of the work’s creator. (For these purposes, “created” means fixed in a tangible form for the first time, so later publications of the same work will not restart the clock.)

So, if you were to publish a book in 2014 and then to die on January 1, 2015, your book would continue to enjoy protections until December 31, 2084. If, however, you were not to die until January 1, 2050, your book would enjoy protections from the moment of its creation until December 31, 2119.

Where works are created by more than one person—such as a book coauthored by two individuals—the protections last for 70 years following the death of the last creator to die.

Works for hire—such as content for a website that the website owner pays someone else to write—receive protections for 95 years from the work’s publication or 120 years from the work’s creation, whichever is shorter.

The same rules for works for hire apply also to anonymous or pseudonymous works, unless the author’s actual identity is contained within Copyright Office records.

It is important to remember, however, that these rules only apply to works originally created on or after January 1, 1978, reflecting Congress’s revision of the system through the Copyright Act of 1976. Different rules apply to works preceding that date.

For works originally created before January 1, 1978 but not published or registered until after that date, the length of protection is the same as that for works created on or after January 1, 1978. The one caveat is that in no case will the copyright for these works expire before December 31, 2002, and for those works in this category not published until after December 31, 2002, the protection will last at least until December 31, 2047.

Works Published before 1978

Prior to 1978, Congress provided that a work received protections on the date the work was published with a copyright notice or on the date the work was registered with the United States Copyright Office in unpublished form. Protections were not as automatic as they are today.

Once protections attached, they would last for 28 years, though during the 28th year, the copyright could be renewed for an additional 28 years. The Copyright Act of 1976 extended the renewal term from 28 years to 47 years, thereby allowing for a total period of 75 years of protection.

Finally, in 1998, Congress further extended the renewal term for an additional 20 years, thereby providing a renewal term of 67 years and a total length equaling 95 years. This brought the protections for works published before 1978 in parity with the length of protection afforded modern works for hire or anonymous/pseudonymous works.

To further complicate the issue, in 1992, Congress provided that all copyrights secured between January 1, 1964 and December 31, 1977 would be automatically renewed, so that no active step would be necessary to renew the protections provided.

If, however, the author wants a renewal certificate from the Copyright Office, he or she must submit a renewal application with corresponding fee.

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Sources:

Copyright Basics

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See Also:

How to Secure a Copyright

Understanding Copyrights