Hi, Maybe I can assist. Copyrights were for a period of something like 26 or 49 years (I have actually forgotten the first number of years, but it doesn't really apply in this case.) After this initial period the owner of the copyright was expected to renew it, and that renewal was for the balance of years adding up to the current 75 years for a copyright. Now then, if someone re-publishes a work out of copyright, then the typesetting, and arrangment, and style is newly copyrighted by that person, but not the material. Now, anything you write is copyrighted anyway, even if you do not send a copy to the library of congress. So now, if the work you are copying is older than 75 years, you can copy it, republish it, or stick it on a billboard if you like. If it is less than 50 years ago, then you must seek out the original copyright holder and ascertain whether it was renewed or not. Otherwise you will need to assume that it was renewed. There are several other laws as well as international , and a couple years that the laws were in 'limbo' in I think 1971 and 72, but for your question, I think this will suffice. Hope that helps. Fair use would be to copy a small portion, paragraph or sentences and use them for discussion or critique. Best Regards, Murray On 23 Sep 99, at 23:26, Colleen Boose wrote: > Terry -- > > I have a couple of questions for you regarding copyright. I have e-mailed > the US GenWeb site twice requesting information but have never received a > response from them. > > Question -- Obituaries that have appeared in newspapers after 1923. Are > they considered to be in the "public record" domain -- or would there be a > copyright infringement regarding the newspaper -- even tho the obituary > does not have a by-line and was not written as a "book" or an > "article"???? > > I have received different answers to my question from three different > co-ordinators of various County GenWeb sites. Your input would be > appreciated. > > Regards, > Colleen > Hager City, WI > > > > ==== WISAUK Mailing List ==== > http://www.rootsweb.com/~wisauk >