The Law of Copyright
The Publishers’ Circular gives the following summary of facts respecting the Copyright Laws:—In our own country, the copyright lasts 42 years absolutely for the author’s life, and seven years after his death. In Greece and in Sardinia it lasts only 15 years from the date of publication. In the Roman States it extends to 12 years after the author’s death. In Russia it lasts for 25 years after the author’s death, and for ten years more if a new edition has been published in the last five years of the first term. In Belgium and Sweden it lasts 20 years after the author’s death, with a provision in Sweden, that, should the representative of the author neglect to continue the publication, the copyright falls to the State. In France it lasts for the benefit of children or widow (that is, to the widow if she be what is called in France en communauté de biens, a peculiar arrangement in French marriage settlements, which establishes between husband and wife a perfect community in each other’s property) 30 years after the author’s death, but to other representatives only 10 years. In Spain it lasts 50 years, reckoning from the author’s death. In Austria, Bavaria, Portugal, Prussia, Saxony, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Wurtemberg, and the States of the Germanic Confederation, it lasts 30 years from the author’s death, to all his heirs and assigns without distinction; and in Denmark, so recently as 1858, it lasted an indefinite period, provided the work was kept in print; now, however, it is restricted to a period of 30 years after the author’s death, with a provision that republication by others is permitted when five years have elapsed in which a work has been out of print. In the United States, copyright lasts for 28 years, and an extension of 14 years granted to the author if he lives, or to his widow, children, and grandchildren. With regard to lectures, sermons, &c., the law of France appears to be that professors and preachers have the sole right of reproducing their lectures and sermons in print; but that advocates and political speakers, while they alone have the right to publish their speeches in a collective or separate form, cannot prevent their being published in the journals of the time as news.