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The NTSLibrary hereby restricts itself to operate within the guidelines and provisions of the Copyright Law of the United States of America. Materials used within the NTSLibrary are provided free of charge for the purpose of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and research, and as a collection of materials open to public access. Request by authors to maintain the work unedited have been implemented, and students and visitors are instructed to abide by the same requests. TO THE LIBRARY VISITORS The NTSLibrary does not charge any type of fees whatsoever in order to use the materials found in this online library. However, there are guidelines for the use of this material, as some of the materials are protected under copyright laws. You may freely access for personal use the material found in this library, however, you may not copy and/or distribute the work, with the exception of Public Domain materials. For information on Public Domain. (Public Domain article can be found at the bottom of this page) The NTSLibrary advices that you view each work independently and according to the author's own copyright information. According to the Fair Use and Reproduction by Libraries and Archives
Provisions of the US Copyright Office
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Copyright Law of the United States of America
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PUBLIC DOMAINS
Excerpts of article titled, "New Rules
For Using Public Domain Materials", by Attorney Lloyd J. Jassin
What is the Public Domain?
Copyright protection does not last forever. That is why copyright is often called a "limited monopoly.” When copyrights grow old and die, the works they protect fall into the public domain. Subject to certain exceptions, public domain works may be freely copied or used in the creation of derivative works without permission, or authorization, of the former copyright owners.
In addition to works no longer protected by copyright, the public domain also includes works that are in the public domain for failure to include a proper copyright notice. Prior to March 1, 1989, notice of copyright (e.g., © 1941 by Irving Berlin) was required on all published works. If the notice was omitted, or appeared in the wrong form or location, the work was put into the public domain. Be aware that if the copyright notice was omitted on copies of works published between January 1, 1978 and March 1, 1989, copyright was not automatically lost if certain measures were taken to cure the oversight.
Besides "expired" copyrights, and works lacking proper notice, the following categories of works are also not eligible for copyright protection: (i) U.S. Government works, (ii) state judicial opinions, (iii) legislative enactments, and other official documents, (iv) unadorned ideas and facts, (v) blank forms, (vi) short phrases, (vii) names, titles and slogans, (viii) extemporaneous speeches, and (ix) standard plots and stock characters.Determining Whether a Work is in the Public Domain
Knowing when a copyright expires will allow you to take advantage of the abundance of material found in the public domain. Therefore, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of copyright law.
One helpful rule-of-thumb is that all works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain in the United States. In addition to pre-1923 works, there are also millions of other works that have fallen into the public domain for either (a) failure to renew; or (b) failure to affix a proper notice.
As discussed below, in the United States, the length of copyright protection a work receives depends upon when it was created.
© 1999 - 2003 by Lloyd J. Jassin.
LLOYD J. JASSIN is a publishing and entertainment attorney and coauthor of The Copyright Permission and Libel Handbook (John Wiley & Sons). He has offices in The Actors' Equity Bldg., 1560 Broadway, Ste. 400, NYC, 10036. He can be reached at 212-354-4442 or by e-mail at Jassin@copylaw.com, or you can visit his firm’s website at www.copylaw.com)
NOTICE: This article discusses general legal issues of interest and is not designed to give any specific legal advice pertaining to any specific circumstances. It is important that professional legal advice be obtained before acting upon any of the information contained in this article.
Important Note: Material found in the Online Christian Library Theological Virtual - NTSLibrary does not necessarily represent the views of any specific organization or person outside of the NTSLibrary. Information is provided solely for research and as a resource to students and guests of library. The information found in the online Christian library website has as a sole purpose the distribution of gathered data for research purpose, and its contents in no way reflect the beliefs or positions of any person or organization in or outside of the NTSLibrary.
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