Perhaps of interest to Wikipedians, Wikisourcians, or those tracing the
tangled web of U.S. Copyright.
-- phoebe
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Stanford Report, April 2, 2007
Database of copyright renewal records launched
http://collections.stanford.edu/determinator/
An online database that enables people to search
copyright-renewal records
for books published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 has been
launched by Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information
Resources (SULAIR).
SULAIR developed the Copyright Renewal Database, dubbed the "Copyright
Determinator," with a grant from the Hewlett Foundation. The effort built
on Project Gutenberg's transcriptions of the Catalog of Copyright Entries,
which was published by the U.S. Copyright Office. (Project
Gutenberg-http://www.gutenberg.org/-;produces free electronic books.)
"This database is an important tool for anyone researching the copyright
status of U.S. works," said Stanford attorney Lauren Schoenthaler. "Having
a single, electronic source for all renewals for these works will greatly
speed the research process."
Determining the copyright status of books has become a pressing issue as
libraries and businesses develop plans to digitize materials and make
works in the public domain widely available. In order to appropriately
select books for digitization, these organizations need to determine
efficiently and with some certainty the copyright status of each work in a
large collection. The Determinator supports this process, bringing all
1923-1963 book-renewal records together in a single database and, more
significantly, making searchable renewal records that had previously been
distributed only in print.
U.S. works published from 1923 to 1963 are the only group of works for
which renewal is now a concern. Renewals have expired for works published
before 1923, and they are generally in the public domain. The 1976
Copyright Act made renewal automatic for works published after Jan. 1,
1964. Determining the renewal status of works published between 1923 and
1963 has been a challenge; the Copyright Office received renewals as early
as 1950, but only records received by that office after 1977 are available
in electronic form. Renewals received between 1950 and 1977 were announced
and distributed only in a semi-annual print publication. For the
Determinator databases, Stanford has converted the print records to
machine-readable form and combined them with the electronic renewal
records from the Copyright Office.
SULAIR continues to refine the database and welcomes feedback. Contact
Mimi Calter at mcalter(a)stanford.edu with questions or comments.