See http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/Watch/uk.cfm This is part branded "University of Reading" - I assume that's our Reading, since this text is about the UK. OK - IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer...) so clearly I will deny having read the page in question but just in case we have no authoritative reply and in the interest of indicating what you might need to ask the archivists and lawyers about.... <<snipped>> 1) According to FreeBMD Miss Olive Moger died aged 80 in 1961 in Tiverton district, so if the 50 year rule is applied (is this still the law?) then copyright in her books expired 2011. <<snipped>> Sorry - it's 70 years as from 1996 - and yes, it was post-dated, so stuff went from out-of-copyright to back-in-copyright if it was in the range 50y to 70y. <<snipped>> 2) As I understand it copyright is concerned with published material and with images. If you transcribe an unpublished document then copyright is not relevant <<snipped>> Sorry - no. Copyright applies to both published and unpublished work (and work published posthumously). It's designed to protect your intellectual property of whatever form. Originally unpublished work had **perpetual** copyright. From 1989 the distinction between published and unpublished is being abolished *but* there is a 50y transition period - "So any author's manuscripts (including those of authors who died many hundreds of years ago) could in theory be copyright-protected until 31 December 2039". So any unpublished work by her could, I suppose, be in copyright until 2039. (IANAL) Note that there is a distinction in the UK between transcribing of copying for research purposes and publishing that transcript or copy. But see that URL. Adrian B Who Is Not A Lawyer
Thank you. Chris -----Original Message----- From: Adrian Bruce Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2014 11:58 PM To: devon@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [DEV] Topsham mariners and the Barbary Corsairs -> copyright See http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/Watch/uk.cfm This is part branded "University of Reading" - I assume that's our Reading, since this text is about the UK. OK - IANAL (I Am Not A Lawyer...) so clearly I will deny having read the page in question but just in case we have no authoritative reply and in the interest of indicating what you might need to ask the archivists and lawyers about.... <<snipped>> 1) According to FreeBMD Miss Olive Moger died aged 80 in 1961 in Tiverton district, so if the 50 year rule is applied (is this still the law?) then copyright in her books expired 2011. <<snipped>> Sorry - it's 70 years as from 1996 - and yes, it was post-dated, so stuff went from out-of-copyright to back-in-copyright if it was in the range 50y to 70y. <<snipped>> 2) As I understand it copyright is concerned with published material and with images. If you transcribe an unpublished document then copyright is not relevant <<snipped>> Sorry - no. Copyright applies to both published and unpublished work (and work published posthumously). It's designed to protect your intellectual property of whatever form. Originally unpublished work had **perpetual** copyright. From 1989 the distinction between published and unpublished is being abolished *but* there is a 50y transition period - "So any author's manuscripts (including those of authors who died many hundreds of years ago) could in theory be copyright-protected until 31 December 2039". So any unpublished work by her could, I suppose, be in copyright until 2039. (IANAL) Note that there is a distinction in the UK between transcribing of copying for research purposes and publishing that transcript or copy. But see that URL. Adrian B Who Is Not A Lawyer ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon ( http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/ ) and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/DEVON/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DEVON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message