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The Determinator! Stanford Releases A Copyright Renewal Database
Searching for copyrights on U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963 has been a challenge...up to now. Books published during those years only remained under copyright protection if they were renewed. Many of them were not renewed, and U.S. Copyright Office renewal records were not online. To use freely, or not to use? That was the question—without an easy answer.
Now anyone can easily search the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database. Dubbed "The Determinator," this new resource now combines older print & machine readable renewal records into a single online database. Find out if the book you want to use requires further permissions because its copyright term was renewed, or if it has passed into the public domain.
Note: The Determinator has copyright information only for renewals (not original publication dates) of books (not movies, music, or periodicals) published in the U.S. between 1923-1963.
Start with a Public Domain chart to find out whether the work you want to use is still under protection. The Copyright@Case website has a chart on the sidebar section, and also on the sidebar link for Copyright Resources & Links, under "Copyright Basics." The U.S. Copyright Office has a helpful booklet, "How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work" (Circular 22)
Posted by Karen Oye on April 17, 2007 11:06 PM
