2021 National Book Festival
- You are an owner of copyright-protected material.
- Learn how writing a story, creating a work of art, composing or recording music, or simply taking a picture engages with copyright.
- Find out more about how this automatic right affects your work and what it covers.
- Learn about the U.S. Copyright Office and the work it does to encourage creativity.
- Click HERE to watch video.
Click here to see more videos from the 2021 National Book Festival.
The copyright video and information is very good. My concern is more with a book I am writing which is inspired by a collection of historical excerpts which make up the history of a Benedictine convent during the early part of the twentieth century. The true events are written in a paper book typed, copied and stapled together in 1970. Only a few copies were distributed to nuns in the convent. It focuses on the lives of three individual nuns. There is no copyright indicated. My book entails the fiction version of incidents in the lives of the three women. Conversations, places and events enhanced by my imagination. All persons mentioned in the book as well as the author are long deceased.
Question: What is my responsibiity in acknowledging the author’s work?
Would appreciate any cautionary information I should know.
Any original material that is put into a format – print, electronic, etc. is under the copyright law. It does not need the copyright symbol or registered with the copyright office. So, yes, the typed paper book you refer to is under copyright. Works published after 1923, but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. Anything published before 1925 is in the public domain.
Having said this, because you are writing a fictionalized version based on this paper book, I would acknowledge that use in the front matter of your book. If you were quoting directly from that source, it would be a different matter.
Hope this helps…Nancy