The public domain. Now available for only $165 an hour!
Figuring out if a work is renewed can be a tricky business. The only official records of renewal are held by the Copyright Office in Washington D.C. However records before January 1, 1978 are not available online. The only way to gain access to these accurate and official records of copyright renewals is to either:
Pay the copyright office $165 an hour to search the copyright records for the original copyright and the renewal notice.
In 2013 should we have to rely on paper card catalogs to help determine if a work is in the public domain? Moreover, Is a work really public domain if it costs $165 an hour to know it’s in the public domain?
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
Figuring out if a work is renewed can be a tricky business. The only official records of renewal are held by the Copyright Office in Washington D.C. However records before January 1, 1978 are not available online. The only way to gain access to these accurate and official records of copyright renewals is to either:
