Poetry in the Public Domain

[Rt. Worshipful]

What is the name of your state? MASSACHUSETTS

1. Are works by Rudyard Kipling considered to be in the Public Domain?

2. If a work's author is Anonymous, is this considered to be in the public domain?

 

[Veronica01]

Anything that is published is public domain, and it is copyrighted, whether the copyright is registered or not. Registration of the copyright protects certain rights that are not protected without registration.

 

[Rt. Worshipful]

I guess I didn't make the question clear. What I wanted to know was if permission and/or royalty payments are required for works by Kipling.

Also, if the author is listed as Anonymous, I don't see how permission or royalties would be required.

 

[Veronica01]

The copyright act of 1977 gives protection for 75 years (USC title 17). Kipling died in 1936. So when the material you contemplate to publish was first published? You might need a permission to republish.

It is very rare that the author owns the copyright. Typically, it is the publisher of the first publication who onwns the copyright. He either transfers the copyright to a subsequent publisher or he grants a license to other publishers to republish the work. So, whether the author is known or anonymous is irrelevant.

What you would need to do is to contact the last known publisher of the material you would wish to republish and query with him the ownership of the copyright. Any royalty on your part would be to the publisher who owns the copyright, or by other arrangement with the onwner of the copyright.

 

[divgradcurl]

Actually, the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998 extends the term of copyright to 95 years from the death of the creator, or 120 years from creation (or 95 years from publication) for works created by a company, an author working under a pseudonym, or an anonymous author. Essentially, this assures that NOTHING that is currently copyrighted will enter the public domain before December 31, 2018.

So yes, the Kipling works are still covered by copyright, and the work done by the anonymous author is also covered by copyright, unless the author EXPLICITLY put the work into the public domain.

A little work on Google should help you track down the current holder of the copyright for the Kipling work in question -- you can check the U.S. Copyright office to see if a copyright is registered (probably is), you could also check with the last known publisher. As far as the anonymous work is concerned, you may have significantly more work ahead to find out who owns the copyright. If you use the anonymous work and there is a copyright in existance, you could be sued by the owner for copyright infringement. You can check with the copyright office to see if the anonymous work has a registered copyright.

If you are working with a publisher, they may have resources to help you track down the copyright information for the anonymous work.