>Mind that for such sources the copyright is no
longer in effect (books
>published in the USSR before 1971 are no longer copyright-defended if
>the server is in the US).
Whose law are you getting this from? Russia has
recently adopted the
life + 70 rule, and though there is some confusion about how the
transition from life + 50 would function none of that would support your
speculation about the law.
Yes, but the law is not retrospective. So if work already was in
public domain then it's remain in public domain. (example until 1963
in USSR photo works was protected only 3 year). I think we need
[[Copyright in Soviet Union]] article. At present I can refer to
acts/articles/legal authorities only in Russian language (example
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_talk:%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%87%D0…)