N Wolcott wrote:
Being his birthday maybe this is appropriate. Pepys gave his memoirs to Cambridge University, but the full text was not published until 1970. That being the case would not the text (minus editorial comment and added footnotes) be now public domain as it is now more than 75 years since the author's death?
In the US, a work first published in 1970 has a 95-year term, and won't hit the public domain until 2066. In the UK, posthumous works are no different than other works today, but that has only been the case since 1988. Before 1988, posthumous works got a 50-year copyright (2021). This may have been extended to 70 years since then (2041). Canada was also offering a 50-year copyright to first publications of posthumous works at the time, and I know they haven't extended their term. -- RS