HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H01072 8/9/01 "THE VOICE AND COPYRIGHT QUESTIONS" ====================================================================== Sender: jeffw@or.credence.com> Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 18:41:12 -0700 From: Jeff Winslow Organization: Credence Systems Corporation Folks, Roy Buckle's item on plagiarism has inspired me to ask a question here that I've been meaning to ask for some time. I'm a composer who has written a song on "The Voice". The song was written in 1997. I've tried to figure out whether the text was under copyright at that time, but what with one thing and another, including the phenomenon of "revived copyright", I find the answer is beyond me. Can anyone give me a reasonably definitive answer, or point me in the direction of same? Thanks, Jeff Winslow jeff_winslow@credence.com ========== Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 22:18:30 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Was "The Voice" in the public domain in 1997? Jeff, I can't tell from your email address whether you are US, Euro or other. If US you might try http://www.loc.gov/copyright OR LISTERV@RS8.LOC.GOV and in the body of the message, say: SUBSCRIBE USCOPYRIGHT OR Write direct to: Library of Congress Copyright Office 101 Independence Avenue, S.E Washington, DC 20559-6000 Good luck! Rosemarie Morgan ========== Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 09:00:36 -0500 From: David Havird Subject: Re: Was "The Voice" in the public domain in 1997? Good question. My guess is Yes--in 1997. I notice, by the way, that there's a little Dover Thrift selection--I don't have it right at hand, but know that it's been available for a couple of years (though surely not for four?). I believe I'm right in saying that these editions only reprint work in the public domain. Anyhow, this selection includes "The Voice," though an earlier version, in which Emma has dissolved not to "wan wistlessness," but to "existlessness." DH ========== From: "James Gibson" Subject: The Copyright question. Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 10:39:10 +0100 With reference to Jeff Winslow's query about 'The Voice', all the Hardy poems published in his lifetime came out of copyright seventy years after his death in 1928. Any poem published for the first time after that date (1928) is in copyright for seventy years from the date of first publication. With a very few exceptions (Numbers 920, 921, 922, 923, 924, 927, 928, 945, 946, 947, 948) all the poems published in Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy (Macmillan), are out of copyright. While on the subject of copyrights I would like to mention something which has intrigued me for years. Hardy, who was a much more generous man than some of his critics are prepared to admit, decided that he would not ask for copyright fees on certain poems published in The Times which were of a public rather than a personal nature. The poems involved were 'The Oxen' (CP403), 'Men who March Away' (CP493), 'In Time of "The Breaking of Nations"' (CP500), 'A Call to National Service' (CP 505), 'Jezreel' (CP521), and 'Compassion' (CP805). Each of these poems had a footnote by Hardy when first published which said 'Copyright not reserved'. That being so, one wonders why The Macmillan Academic Press (now, almost unbelievably, the palgrave press - yes with a lower case 'p' ), who I am told bought up all Hardy's copyrights in the 1930s or 1940s, was charging copyright fees on these poems throughout the remaining period of copyright. A friend of mine who was working on a poetry anthology during the copyright period was told that Macmillan would require a copyright fee of £128 for 'Men who March Away', £102 for 'The Oxen', £102 for 'Jezreel', and £122 for 'Compassion'. Nearly £500 for four poems - what a goldmine Hardy was for Macmillan, and how badly they have treated him recently! But were they entitled to charge anything for poems whose writer had declared them to be out of copyright? I would like to know! James Gibson ==========