Anthem copyright

[RadCap]

Someone told me in passing that the rights to Anthem had expired. Does anyone know if this is true? Additionally, does anyone know if this applies to the film rights as well?

[msb]

There are several copies of Anthem floating around online. But very little information (that I could find) is available about why the copyright expired. If Ayn Rand renewed the copyright after 28 years, as is standard, then it would still be under copyright until ~2020 or 2030. The copyright expiry for works written before 1970-something is 28 years, and if renewed, 94 (I think). Works written after the 1970-something date are automatically copyrighted until 70 years after the authors death.

Project Gutenberg has a copy of Anthem up, and if I may permitted to appeal to authority, they are very reputable and would have made absolutely sure the copyright was expired before transcribing it electronically.

Here's the scant info they give at the beginning of their edition:

Caxton Printers, who used to own the United States copyrights to Anthem by Ayn Rand, as per an agreement with Pamphleteers, was VERY kind and VERY open about explaining the copyright of Anthem, and how it came to be not renewed in the U.S.; and we would like to add, on their behalf, that their copyrights are still in force for Anthem in Canada.  Neither we nor they are in a current position to research the possible copyrights for other countries, so that is possibly still up in the air.  It behooves me, since they have been so forthcoming about this--to encourage you to buy the only hardcover edition available.

There's contact info for the publisher there, too. The document is here, if you want to look them up:

http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext98/anthm10.txt

[bbrown]

All I can say is that I hope that they don't get to it.