Re: [Worship] Public domain? ("May the Mind of Christ")

[Bruce Johnson <bjohnson@worshipmap.com>]

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Rob,

Thanks for sharing the link to the 1998 copyright amendments.
Important stuff to pay attention to.     You also make a good summary
of the relevant point.

I do, however, have a minor (though I hope useful) quibble about your
application in this case.    You say,

	> If the words were first published in 1925, they would still
	> be under  copyright, thanks to changes in the copyright law.

That's not necessarily so, as I stated, but failed to explain, in my
original post.

As you yourself state, the extension to 75 years applies to
"copyrights that were subsisting on January 1, 1978. . ."   (leaving
aside the "restored copyrights" provision which does not apply in a
case like this);  it applies to the "RENEWAL term".
An example, from the legislation:
	"Any copyright still in its renewal term at the time
	that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act becomes effective
	shall have a copyright term of 95 years from the date copyright
	was originally secured."

IOW, if a copyright was NOT "in renewal" at the beginning of 1978, the
copyright is NOT automatically extended.

Application to this particular case.   According to the cyberhymnal
link you provide, it appears that Kate Wilkinson wrote the lyrics
BEFORE 1925, but that they were first PUBLISHED in 1925.   Under the
copyright law of that time the copyright did NOT exist (was not
"originally secured") prior to that publication, since no copyright
was registered before that time.

	As you wrote:
	> Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured
	> either on the date a work was published with a copyright
	> notice or on the date of registration if the work was registered
	> in unpublished form.

Thus, assuming the copyright WAS registered when the work was first
published in 1925, it would be POSSIBLE for the words to still be
under copyright.

BUT there is NO indication of any RENEWAL of copyright (and renewal is
not automatic).  Thus the words were NOT under copyright in 1978.
Result: they were then, and are now, in the public domain.

As for the tune associated with the lyrics (though the original
question was not concerned with this), it was likewise not "in
renewal" in 1978 and would be in the public domain.

The key point is this:   you may not be able to determine whether
something is under copyright simply by looking at the original date
-- some songs first copyrighted in 1925 (or later) are still under
copyright, some are not.      You have to check for each song.


---------------

BRITISH COPYRIGHT!

But there's another wrinkle or two here. . .

So far we've been basing everything on *U.S* copyright law.    But the
piece we are discussing was written & published in England.

If I understand this properly, British law has for some time
recognized the duration of copyright for a literary or dramatic work
as extending 70 years after the author's death.
(http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/std/faq/copyright/how_long.ht
m)  Since Kate Wilkinson died in 1928, that would take us to 1998.

But that still doesn't work.   Every hymnbook I've seen this song in
is pre-1998, and none includes any mention of copyright, not even
those that are most fastidious about such things.     And there is no
evidence of the author or original publisher staking a claim.    It
appears that the song has been considered in the public domain for
some time, if not from the beginning.

So.. what it going on?     Is it possible for an author to simply
relinquish copyright to a work and 'release' it into the public
domain?   (Perhaps our British friends can help us here.)  Is that
what happened here?

---------------

In the end, I go back to my original advice.  Check a competent
source. Most hymnbooks are very careful about how they use and post
notices for copyrighted materials (as is cyberhymnal), and can be
relied on to answer these questions.  Thus, hymnbooks list copyright
notices for "Great is Thy Faithfulness" but none for "May the Mind..."

Bruce Johnson
www.worshipmap.com



Rob K rakemp <rakemp@charter.net> wrote:
> I got this information from a web site with the song.
>
> Words: Kate B. Wilkinson
> <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/w/i/l/wilkinson_kb.htm>, before
> 1913;
> appeared in Golden Bells (London: Children’s Special Service
> Mission, 1925).
>
> Music: “St. Leonards,” Arthur C. Barham-Gould
> <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/b/a/r/barham-gould_ac.htm>,
>
> If the words were first published in 1925, they would still be
> under  copyright, thanks to changes in the copyright law. The kicker
> Public law 105-298. Here is the relevant information from the
> Copyright office site. However if the words were actually
> published before 1923, they would be in the public domain, since
>their 75 year copyright protection would have expired before October
>of 1998 when Public Law 105-298 came into effect.
>
> Under the law in effect before 1978, copyright was secured
> either on the date a work was published with a copyright notice or
>on the date of registration if the work was registered in unpublished
>form. In either case, the copyright endured for a first term of 28
>years from the date it was secured. During the last (28th) year of
>the first term, the copyright was eligible for renewal. The Copyright
>Act of 1976 extended the renewal term from 28 to 47 years for
> copyrights that were subsisting on January 1, 1978, or for pre-1978
>copyrights restored under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA),
>making these works eligible for a total term of protection of 75
>years.
> Public Law 105-298
> <http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl105-298.pdf?d105:SN00505:%7C
TOM:/bss/d105query.html%7C>,
> enacted on October 27, 1998, further extended the renewal term
> of copyrights still subsisting on that date by an additional 20
> years, providing for a renewal term of 67 years and a total term of
> protection of 95 years.