Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Does Copyright Notice Indicate Expired Copyright?

Dear Rich: I want to use material from a webpage that says "Copyright 1996 to 2010." Does that mean it has expired?
No, the copyright hasn't expired. The copyright notice should reflect the date of publication of the current version of the work. Instead of doing that, many copyright owners use a series of dates (Copyright 1996, 2004, 2010) or a range of dates (Copyright 1996 to 2010) to let you know that the website or book has gone through multiple versions. Copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, or in cases of corporate authorship, 95 years from first publication. Either way, the website you're referring to is protected for decades.