Self-publishing and copyright issues

[Al Smitley]

I have an idea for a project I'd like to undergo.......possibly leading to a self-publishing issue.

I would be collecting a specific genre of antebellum era songs (possibly expanding from there) and compiling them into a collection.  What would be the copyright issues?  Would reprinting/transcribing verses from songs published/printed over 70 years ago cause me any copyright concerns?  Is it a black/white issue or are there exceptions to make things more confusing?

[Joel Hooks]

Try this...

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

For printed matter, anything before 1923 is fair game.  Keep in mind that unless you make "substantial editorial changes" you will not be able to get protection on the public domain work that you publish, and you should not want to.

For example; to prevent major corporations from claiming ownership one cannot take a public domain work, produce a copy of it and renew the copyright. See circular 14 from the us copyright office. 

Only new and previously unpublished works may be copyrighted.

"Antebellum" typically means before the American Civil War.  Unless my math is off, that was more than 70 years ago.

When in doubt, find an original copy from a library-- though the previously cited circular 14 from the US copyright office covers that (see below).

With this (as well and anything) only read and learn from primary sources.  Do not take anything you are told or read on the internet as fact unless it comes directly from the US copyright office.  Most of what you will read (or even what will likely be posted here) is false.

Follow the links I posted and find out for yourself.  Don't take my word for it.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf

Post Script: the "poor man's copyright" of mailing it to yourself is a useless waste of time.

[Al Smitley]

Thanks, Joel.  That website will undoubtedly help.  I only mentioned 70 years because, as a former librarian (who should know more about this) I knew that was safe for putting the local newspaper online and thus a "magic" number of some sort......and also I thought there might be a possibility that I would expand beyond the antebellum era at some point.  ...and, when you said, "...find out for yourself.  Don't take my word for it.", you sounded a bit "librarianish", yourself, as we were careful not to have patrons come back with a law suit for erroneous professional advice.  ;)

[Al Smitley]

Thanks, Dan'l.  I'm not so interested in the images as the content, and in many cases it would involve bits and pieces of the content......and the topic of interested would have a very small audience, even of people on this site!   So, there would be very little (if any) money/profit involved, thus Google would likely consider it a waste of their time to pursue me! ;)