Sadly, for most countries, those works will be entering the public domain for the second time, as in 1995, with a multi-million claw-back action, all those works where in the huge bulk of cultural heritage that our law-makers stole from the public domain and gave away for free (okay, a small donation and some lobbying effort).
I think, with the current idiotic lengths of copyright, there is no reason for celebration, as most of the works have become mostly irrelevant, after having been locked up in the copyright dull drums for most of their existance...
For pre-1923, I think it is most convenient to side-step the hard to handle (especially for lesser known authors) life+something formulas all together, and have such materials published in the U.S., for materials of which the author is dead over 50 years, Canada, or other countries that still maintain the (already overly long) life+50 year term are good places to put things on-line.
It may also help to adjust the terminology. Copyright "protection" may suggest that copyright somehow protects the work. Better talk of copyright restrictions.
Sadly, for most countries, those works will be entering the public domain for the second time, as in 1995, with a multi-million claw-back action, all those works where in the huge bulk of cultural heritage that our law-makers stole from the public domain and gave away for free (okay, a small donation and some lobbying effort).
I think, with the current idiotic lengths of copyright, there is no reason for celebration, as most of the works have become mostly irrelevant, after having been locked up in the copyright dull drums for most of their existance...
For pre-1923, I think it is most convenient to side-step the hard to handle (especially for lesser known authors) life+something formulas all together, and have such materials published in the U.S., for materials of which the author is dead over 50 years, Canada, or other countries that still maintain the (already overly long) life+50 year term are good places to put things on-line.
It may also help to adjust the terminology. Copyright "protection" may suggest that copyright somehow protects the work. Better talk of copyright restrictions.