First off, Arthur Conan Doyle was British, and you're Canadian. So I had to find out how copyright law works internationally. Luckily, a bunch of other folks in the late 19th century thought it would be a good idea if the nations of the world agreed on copyright law, so we have the Berne Convention of 1886, which every country except a few weird places like Angola and Afghanistan have signed up to.
The Berne Convention says that the expiry period for copyrights has to be at least 50 years from the author's death. Countries are free to have a longer period, but in respect of a foreign author they can't enforce a longer period than he gets from his own country (the rule of the shorter term). So if your country has a 100-year rule, you can still publish the work of an author who died 50 years ago if s/he came from a country with a 50-year rule. However, you won't be surprised to hear that the USA won't play ball and doesn't recognise this rule.
The UK has a 70-year rule, counting from the end of the year of death (Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s12), but it used to be a 50-year rule. Conan Doyle died in 1930, so his work would have gone into the public domain in 2001 had it always been a 70-year rule. But actually the copyright expired in 1980 as it was a 50-year rule at that time, and extensions aren't retrospective. Canada has enacted the rule of the shorter term, so you'd be fine even if Canada had a 100-year rule, although in fact it seems to have a 50-year rule (Copyright Act 1985).
The USA keeps extending its copyright terms (I won't speculate as to why), so it's quite complicated, but apparently anything published in the USA before 1923 is now out of copyright, which is the case for all but a few Holmes stories.
On a more practical note:
1) I just went to look in the front of our copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and the only copyright notice is in respect of the text itself, in favour of the publisher.
2) The BBC produced a modern version of Sherlock Holmes (using the same name, and Dr Watson's too), and as far as I know they haven't been sued yet.
3) See the link.
Bottom line: knock yourself out with the fanfic, but don't try to pretend you invented the character of Sherlock Holmes yourself.
The Berne Convention says that the expiry period for copyrights has to be at least 50 years from the author's death. Countries are free to have a longer period, but in respect of a foreign author they can't enforce a longer period than he gets from his own country (the rule of the shorter term). So if your country has a 100-year rule, you can still publish the work of an author who died 50 years ago if s/he came from a country with a 50-year rule. However, you won't be surprised to hear that the USA won't play ball and doesn't recognise this rule.
The UK has a 70-year rule, counting from the end of the year of death (Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s12), but it used to be a 50-year rule. Conan Doyle died in 1930, so his work would have gone into the public domain in 2001 had it always been a 70-year rule. But actually the copyright expired in 1980 as it was a 50-year rule at that time, and extensions aren't retrospective. Canada has enacted the rule of the shorter term, so you'd be fine even if Canada had a 100-year rule, although in fact it seems to have a 50-year rule (Copyright Act 1985).
The USA keeps extending its copyright terms (I won't speculate as to why), so it's quite complicated, but apparently anything published in the USA before 1923 is now out of copyright, which is the case for all but a few Holmes stories.
On a more practical note:
1) I just went to look in the front of our copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes, and the only copyright notice is in respect of the text itself, in favour of the publisher.
2) The BBC produced a modern version of Sherlock Holmes (using the same name, and Dr Watson's too), and as far as I know they haven't been sued yet.
3) See the link.
Bottom line: knock yourself out with the fanfic, but don't try to pretend you invented the character of Sherlock Holmes yourself.
Vigilantibus non dormientibus jura subveniunt.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
—Nous disons en allemand : le guerre, le mort, le lune, alors que 'soleil' et 'amour' sont du sexe féminin : la soleil, la amour. La vie est neutre.
—La vie ? Neutre ? C'est très joli, et surtout très logique.
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Copyright Law
- 09/12/2010 05:50:11 PM
942 Views
I did a bit of sleuthing.
- 10/12/2010 12:06:38 AM
908 Views