Scope of Exclusive Rights Under Copyright

The present law has changed and enlarged in some cases the scope of the
copyright owner's rights. The new rights apply to all uses of a work
subject to protection by copyright after January 1, 1978, regardless of
when the work was created.


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DURATION OF COPYRIGHT PROTECTION
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Works Originally Copyrighted On or After January 1, 1978

A work that is created and fixed in tangible form for the first time on
or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of
its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's
life plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of
"a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire,"
the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death. For
works made for hire and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the
author's identity is revealed in the Copyright Office records), the
duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from
creation, whichever is less. Works created before the 1976 law came into
effect but neither published nor registered for copyright before January
1, 1978, have been automatically brought under the statute and are now
given federal copyright protection. The duration of copyright in these
works will generally be computed in the same way as for new works: the
life-plus-70 or 95/120-year terms will apply. However, all works in this
category are guaranteed at least 25 years of statutory protection.