Greg Weeks wrote:
Is it possible to do a rule 6 clearance on a book where the author isn't a US national? Didn't non-US copyright holders only get the extension during the 1924-1964 block when they either renewed or filed for a "Notice of Intent to Enforce (NIE) a Restored Copyright"? Or is it just much more complicated than that?
This is my understanding, but I am not a lawyer: Copyright on works of foreign nationals that were still under copyright in the creator's home country, and had fallen out of copyright in the U.S. due to failure to observe U.S. copyright formalities, were automatically restored by the Uruguay Round Agreement Act on January 1, 1996. However, in order to enforce the restored copyright against a party that had been utilizing the work's public domain status prior to the passage of the URAA (December 8, 1994), the rights holder must have filed a Notice of Intent to Enforce. It is my understanding that filing an NIE is not necessary to enforce a copyright against an infringer whose infringement began after December 8, 1994, and so PG cannot usefully exploit this loophole to create new editions of works whose rights holders did not file an NIE. -- RS