[WikiEN-l] Fair use issues; we need serious help

[Matthew Brown]

On 8/4/07, Gwern Branwen <gwern0 at gmail.com> wrote:
> As for the pre-1964 stuff: precisely what notable material wasn't renewed?

Large quantities of stuff was not renewed.  Specialist and trade
publications, brochures, catalogs, and much, much more.  The lists of
copyright renewals, which you can find for certain years online, are
in fact rather short.  You'll probably find, in fact, some quite well
known works indeed were not renewed.  Some movies, for instance, were
not renewed and passed into the public domain; many others did not
simply because the underlying book upon which they were based was
renewed.

-Matt