>David Crane asked: >Just for the record, does anyone know how long newspaper copyrights >last? We should certainly honor them, but, by the same token, we >all need to be aware of the limitations of the law. All newspaper copyrights since Jan. 1, 1978 are for 75 years. These are considered copyrights on work done for hire as opposed to individual copyrights, which last for 50 years past the individual's death. It gets more complicated before 1978. For all practical purposes a 1992 law made all copyrights originally issued between Jan. 1, 1964 and Dec. 31, 1977 last for 75 years (technically a 28-year original term plus an automatic renewal of 47 years). Copyrights before 1964 would have been granted for a period of 28 years with the right of the copyright holder to renew it for a second period of 28 years. That's a total of 56 years. However, I seriously doubt that many newspapers renewed such copyrights if they had even bothered to copyright their contents prior to the law that came into effect in 1978. -- Karl Seitz