Copyright duration, was Re: Very OT: Lord of the Rings

[nlpnt]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "frantyck" <frantyck at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "catorman" <catherine at c...> wrote:
> > If I recall correctly from my copyright law studies (dubious), 
> then 
> > copyright expires 50 years after the writer has died.
> [snip details] 
> > Catherine
> 
> 
> Copyright duration is currently 'life of author plus seventy 
years,' 
> I believe. This seems to have come into effect early in 1978 in the 
> US. There's a bunch of different categories, though...
> 
> Rrishi

It depends also on when the author died. For the US, a general rule 
is that the work anyone who died at the same time as or after Walt 
Disney, will not be in public domain anytime soon, if ever (the 
Disney corp. having the resources to spend cubic dollars on lawyers, 
lobbyists, etc. to retain copyright over Walt's work)