We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
324
Beginning in 1978, the basic term was switched to life of the author plus 50 years. ^^
The 1790 Act
The term set forth in the 1790 Act (like much of that Act) was derived from the 1710 English Statute of Anne:^* an original term of 14 years from the date the title of a prepublication copy of the work was filed with the clerk of the United States district court, ^^ followed by a second renewal term also of 14 years for the benefit of the author or the author's executor, administrators, and assigns if the author was alive at the expiration of the first term and the work was again filed with the district court. If the author died during the first term, the work fell into the public domain at the expiration of that term. And if the author lived until the renewal term, but failed to timely renew, the work also fell into the public domain. If the author died during the renewal term (and a timely renewal had been made) rights were owned according to the author's bequest, or if assigned, according to the assignment.
The 1831 Act
In 1831, at the request of Noah Webster, Congress doubled the original term of copyright to 28 years. ^^ The renewal term stayed
did not provide a term for these works, the courts held that the term was measured from the date of registration with the Copyright Office.
^^ 17 U.S.C. section 302 (1978). For works created by corporations the term could not be measured by the life of the author, and is instead set at either 75 years from the date of first publication or 100 years from creation, whichever occurs first.
^* 8 Anne c. 19 (1710).
^^ Interestingly, the Statute of Anne and all of the colonial statutes, as well as the Continental Congress's May 2, 1783 resolution urging the states to adopt interim copyright laws measured term from the date of first publication of the work. No evidence has turned up explaining the 1790 Act's departure from this prior practice.
^^ Act of February 3, 1831, 21st Cong., 2d Sess., 4 Stat. 436; W. Ellsworth, COPY-RIGHT MANUAL 21-22 (1882). Ellsworth was Webster's son in-law, and a member of the House of Representatives at the time of this Act (including the Judiciary Committee, upon whose behalf he reported out the bill) , 52 ANNALS OF CONGRESS, Appendix cxix, 21st Cong. (Dec. 17, 1830) (Gale & Seaton's Register