may be affected. Request Circular 15, "Renewal of
Copyright," for further information.

UNPUBLISHED, UNREGISTERED WORKS: Before 1978, if a work had been neither
"published" in the legal sense nor registered in the Copyright Office, it
was subject to perpetual protection under the common law. On January 1,
1978, all works of this kind, subject to protection by copyright, were
automatically brought under the federal copyright statute. The duration
of copyright for these works can vary, but none of them will expire
before December 31, 2002.

DERIVATIVE WORKS

In examining a copy (or a record, disk, or tape) for copyright
information, it is important to determine whether that particular version
of the work is an original edition of the work or a "new version." New
versions include musical arrangements, adaptations, revised or newly
edited editions, translations, dramatizations, abridgments, compilations,
and works republished with new matter added. The law provides that
derivative works, published or unpublished, are independently
copyrightable and that the copyright in such a work does not affect or
extend the protection, if any, in the underlying work. Under the 1909
law, courts have also held that the notice of copyright on a derivative
work ordinarily need not include the dates or other information
pertaining to the earlier works incorporated in it. This principle is
specifically preserved in the present copyright law. Thus, if the copy
(or the record, disk, or tape) constitutes a derivative version of the
work, these points should be kept in mind:

+ The date in the copyright notice is not necessarily an indication of
when copyright in all the material in the work will expire. Some of the
material may already be in the public domain, and some parts of the
work may expire sooner than others.

+ Even if some of the material in the derivative work is in the public
domain and free for use, this does not mean that the "new" material
added to it can be used without permission from the owner of copyright
in the derivative work. It may be necessary to compare editions to
determine what is free to use and what is not.

+ Ownership of rights in the material included in a derivative work and
in the preexisting work upon which it may be based may differ, and
permission obtained from the owners of certain parts of the work may
not authorize the use of other parts.

THE NAME IN THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE