German Copyright Question...

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

how long would the copyright be on a privately published (1933) unit history?

Would it be possible to do a reprint

Thanks

Chris

[Marcin L]

Hi Chris,

In general, I think you could issue a reprint after 70 years since author's death (70 years post mortem auctoris). But this may require some legal advice from German lawyer.

Regards,

Marcin

[Chris Boonzaier]

Good tip, thanks.

"25 years from first publication or first public performance if copyright has expired before such publication or performance, or if the work has never been protected in Germany and the author died more than 70 years before the first publication"

[Paul C]

What are you thinking of reprinting?

[Chip]

Chris,

There are several websites that sell unit histories on disks, so if they can copy and resell these histories, I would think you could reprint them as well.

Chip

[IrishGunner]

Chris,

There are several websites that sell unit histories on disks, so if they can copy and resell these histories, I would think you could reprint them as well.

Chip

Good point. Also, I find many books published in the 1920s/1930s on Google books for free.

Project Gutenberg is another of these type of resources. Internet Archive is yet one more.

Of course, they are clear to point out that these are available because they have expired U.S. copyrights. But many are in European languages.