At 10:10 AM 4/3/2006, Marcia Peri wrote: >I want to thank everyone who kindly responded to my inquiry >regarding fanzines and copyright. The general consensus is that >fanzines were in fact considered published and that any from the >1930's would be in the public domain. Not so fast. The key issue here is whether the fanzine was a general publication or a limited publication. A limited publication is one "which communicates the contents of a manuscript to a definitely selected group and for a limited purpose, without the right of diffusion, reproduction, distribution, or sale." That means that if the fanzine was only available to a small, select group, and not anyone could become a member of that group, for copyright purposes the fanzine would continue to be considered to be unpublished. If anyone could get a copy of the fanzine, then it would be considered to be published. And if it was published without notice or renewal, according to my copyright chart at <http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm>, it would be in the public domain. As always with copyright, possible risk is just as important as the law. If the article in the fanzine was written by JD Salinger or if publishing the article might embarrass an author or his/her heirs, I might be more cautious and seek legal advice. And as always, this is not legal advice, but only information. Peter Peter B. Hirtle [log in to unmask] A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>