From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 23:38:33 -0500

Yes, you're right, I had forgotten that the retroactivity applied to
more than just foreign works that had failed to comply with US
formalities (like notice and registration). Russia joined the Berne
Convention in 1995, a year before the 1996 law providing for
retroactivity came into effect, and thus rendered itself an "eligible
country" under the new law. Interestingly, while Russian works
published before 1973 thus became eligible for protection again,
Russia did not--at least for a while--consider foreign works published
before 1973 to be under copyright in Russia.  For this peculiarity and
other illuminating discussion of the law, see Wikipedia's article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_copyright_relations_of_Russia

Sandy Thatcher


From: "Pilch, Janice T" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 02:27:25 +0000

Getting to messages in reverse- Sandy, this is no longer true.

The 1973 dividing line that previously separated Soviet works that
were in the public domain in the U.S. and copyright-protected in the
U.S., based on UCC membership, is no longer in effect. On January 1,
1996 copyright restoration went into effect in the U.S. under the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act that required the U.S. to restore
copyright to foreign works previously in the public domain in the U.S.
due to lack of national eligibility, and for other reasons, in
compliance with Article 18 of the Berne Convention. Beginning on that
date, vast numbers of Soviet works previously in the public domain in
the U.S. gained copyright protection in the U.S. for the full U.S.
term.

It has been difficult for many scholars of Slavic studies to realize
this and some publishers are still unaware, but it's absolutely the
case. Due diligence involves determining whether the work was
protected in the country of origin on the date that copyright
restoration went into effect for that country- and thus the copyright
laws of the post-Soviet nations comes into play.

I have written extensively on this topic but will point you to the
most recent article which has references to earlier articles- you can
find this in JSTOR among other sources:

Janice T. Pilch, "U.S. Copyright Relations with Central, East
European, and Eurasian Nations in Historical Perspective," Slavic
Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 325-348.

This news typically comes as a shock to people but it 's a situation
that has existed for 18 years.

Best,

Janice T. Pilch
Copyright and Licensing Librarian
Rutgers University Libraries
Email: [log in to unmask]

________________________________________
From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:08:34 -0500

The USSR didn't join the Universal Copyright Convention until May
1973, so everything Russian from prior to that date can be treated
under our law as being in the public domain.

Sandy Thatcher