Quote:
Originally Posted by BassBob2112  I'm not trying to be a wise guy, but how do you know if a poem is 'public domain' or not ? |
Bassbob2112:
Wikipedia says:
...The term 'public domain' did not appear in early copyright law, which was first established in Britain with the Statute of Anne, 1709....
...Copyright law was created by statute and all works created and published before copyright law was first established are in the public domain....
To His Coy Mistress
By Andrew Marvell
Was published in 1681.
As a rule, project gutenberg, the library of congress, and the like do a pretty good job of indicating whether a work is public domain or not. However, I suppose if there were any real money to be made, someone might be found to press the rights issue hard enough at least for lawyers to feed.
YMMV
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffTPS! Keep in mind I'm only talking about Canada here but when you use things in the public domain you lose a significant amount of royalties. Although you don't make much in royalties in the first place so that isn't that big of a deal but getting it cleared internationally could be because public domain differs by country. You're playing it safe if you go with original lyrics from a business standpoint. |
GeoffTPS!: Interesting, Do you happen to have a link that breaks down the different types of royalties -- that might address which class or type of royalty is 'lost' when using public domain? And then if you used a creative commons type of open 'copyright' would you lose or be unable to secure those same royalties? Looks like a can of worms.
I am leaning more toward original lyrics...
~
