Christina Rossetti?

Tracing copyright owners and asking permission.
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marymacgowan
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Christina Rossetti?

Post by marymacgowan »

Hi, me again... How about Christina Rossetti? I use a couple of her poems for my songs. Is her work public domain?

Mary MacGowan
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CopyrightAid
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Post by CopyrightAid »

There seems to be a common theme with your questions... ;)

In terms of copyright duration under UK law, there is a simple flowchart that can be used
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/pdfs/copyrightflowchart.pdf

I note however that you seem to be from the USA? So I have done a couple of searches for something similar for US law. Unfortunately these are not quite as simple:
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/FINA ... 281%29.pdf
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

They are complicated a bit by the formal registration system in the US, but you should bear in mind that any US registration requirement cannot be applied to work of non-US origin (that would breach the Berne Convention). So as a general rule (AndyJ please correct me if I am wrong here) I think it is safe to say that if a work is still protected in its own country and that country is a Berne signatory then the duration should be the same as if it were registered in the US.

The 2nd link seems to deal with works from outside the US better, so is probably my preferred one, but I think the first PDF is worth a look through as grounding (particularly the duration and renewal section at the end) so you can hit the ground running with the 2nd link.
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AndyJ
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Post by AndyJ »

Hi Mary,

Christina Rossetti's work is now in the public domain. She died in 1894 so her work would have been covered by the 1911 Copyright Act which said that all works published within the lifetime of the author would be remain in copyright for fifty years from the end of the year in which the author died. As far as I am aware all of her poetry and other literary work was published during her lifetime, meaning that another provision of that Act referring to unpublished works, would not apply in her case.
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007
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