US Catalog of Copyright Entries (Renewals)


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NEWS (2006 Feb):  I've now also generated minor pages of a few 1928 thru 1949 books that weren't renewed.
(2004 Feb):  I've now also generated minor pages of a few 1924 thru 1927 books that weren't renewed.
(2002 Nov):  Major changes to this section of my website:  I've split the transcriptions into more, smaller pages, that are handled better by browsers;  I've finished transcribing the 1955 renewals, which can be found in the 1927 & 1928 files;  the renewals pages are now hosted in the US, courtesy of ibiblio.org, so they should download faster for US users;  I've at last generated a major page of 1923 books that weren't renewed (1924... to come, but it's a slow business);  and I've generated minor pages of 1951 thru 1963 books that weren't renewed.

US copyright is a complex subject, and is well explained in a recent article by Mary Minow here, and by John Mark Ockerbloom here, with further information here on the rules on works by non-US authors.  In summary:

These pages are intended to help with determining the US copyright status of literary books from this 1923-1963 period.  (Note that the copyright systems of virtually all other countries depend on the date(s) of death of the creator(s) – for help on this, see my New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors.)

These pages currently just contain transcriptions of the renewals of US copyright for literary works, ie books (omitting laws, law reports & digests, instruction manuals, parts lists, instruction papers, maps, forms & patterns), contributions to periodicals & periodicals themselves (omitting law reports & digests), and a few unpublished dramatic (& other performance) works.

NB: I have silently corrected errors where I am sure of the correction, and have indicated others, together with the possible correction, by the use of “[sic]”.  There may be other errors in the printed catalog, and introduced in the transcription, so it is the condition of use of these pages that you must verify any information in these pages before relying on it.  The links to the relevant renewal years for each year of original registration in the table below will take you through to indexes of page images of the printed catalog, and thence to the Project Gutenberg transcriptions of those pages.  There is an overall index here.  If you find any further possible errors, please email me at webmaster@kingkong.demon.co.uk.  (Renewals since 1978 Jan 1, i.e. of material first US-copyrighted since about 1951, can now be searched online – details in the table below.)  For collective works (eg, books of short stories or essays), each item will have a separate copyright status if it was published separately, which will need to be investigated as well.


I have extracted all the declarations of pseudonyms and their resolutions on a separate page here, for those interested specifically in such things.


If the following table is too wide to use conveniently in your browser window,
hit Alt-V, Alt-X, Alt-S in Internet Explorer (Alt-V, Alt-X, Alt-L to reverse),
or Ctrl-Minus in Netscape (Ctrl-Plus to reverse).


Publication
year
A-class
registrations
(books)
[by title]
B-class
registrations
(periodical 
 contributions)
B-class
registrations
(whole issues
of periodicals)
D-class
registrations
(dramatic 
 works)
PKZipped
text file of
transcribed
renewals
Books
with US
copyright
not renewed
1923
renewed in
1950 & 1951
(& 1952)
complete:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
complete:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
complete:
A-Z
complete:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
(109KB) many:
(100KB)
1924
renewed in
1951 & 1952
(& 1953)
complete:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
complete:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
complete:
A-Z
complete:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
(134KB) a few:
(14KB)
1925
renewed in
1952 & 1953
(& 1954)
complete:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
partial:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
partial:
A-Z
partial:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
(123KB) a few:
(15KB)
1926
renewed in
1953 & 1954
(& 1955)
complete:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
partial:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
    (120KB) a few:
(16KB)
1927
renewed in
1954 & 1955
(& 1956)
complete:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
complete:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
    (77KB) a few:
(15KB)
1928
renewed in
1955 & 1956
(& 1957)
partial:
0AB, CD, EFG,
HIJ, KL, MN,
O-R, ST, U-Z  
partial:
0-EF-L,
M-RS-Z  
    (77KB) a few:
(10KB)
1929
renewed in
1956 & 1957
(& 1958)
coming
(200x)
coming
(200x)
      a few:
(10KB)
Publication
year
A-class
registrations
(books)
[by title]
B-class
registrations
(periodical 
 contributions)
B-class
registrations
(whole issues
of periodicals)
D-class
registrations
(dramatic 
 works)
PKZipped
text file of
transcribed
renewals
Books
with US
copyright
not renewed
1930
renewed in
1957 & 1958
(& 1959)
coming
(200x)
coming
(200x)
      a few:
(10KB)
1931
renewed in
1958 & 1959
(& 1960)
coming
(200y)
coming
(200y)
      a few:
(10KB)
1932
renewed in
1959 & 1960
(& 1961)
coming
(200z)
coming
(200z)
      a few:
(10KB)
1933
renewed in
1960 & 1961
(& 1962)
          a few:
(10KB)
1934
renewed in
1961 & 1962
(& 1963)
          a few:
(10KB)
1935
renewed in
1962 & 1963
(& 1964)
          a few:
(10KB)
1936
renewed in
1963 & 1964
(& 1965)
          a few:
(10KB)
1937
renewed in
1964 & 1965
(& 1966)
          a few:
(10KB)
1938
renewed in
1965 & 1966
(& 1967)
          a few:
(10KB)
1939
renewed in
1966 & 1967
(& 1968)
          a few:
(10KB)
Publication
year
A-class
registrations
(books)
[by title]
B-class
registrations
(periodical 
 contributions)
B-class
registrations
(whole issues
of periodicals)
D-class
registrations
(dramatic 
 works)
PKZipped
text file of
transcribed
renewals
Books
with US
copyright
not renewed
1940
renewed in
1967 & 1968
(& 1969)
          a few:
(10KB)
1941
renewed in
1968 & 1969
(& 1970)
          a few:
(10KB)
1942
renewed in
1969 & 1970
(& 1971)
          a few:
(10KB)
1943
renewed in
1970 & 1971
(& 1972)
          a few:
(10KB)
1944
renewed in
1971 & 1972
(& 1973)
          a few:
(10KB)
1945
renewed in
1972 & 1973
(& 1974)
          a few:
(10KB)
1946
renewed in
1973 & 1974
(& 1975)
          a few:
(10KB)
1947
renewed in
1974 & 1975
(& 1976)
          a few:
(10KB)
1948
renewed in
1975 & 1976
(& 1977)
          a few:
(10KB)
1949
renewed in
1976 & 1977
(& 1978)
          a few:
(10KB)
Publication
year
A-class
registrations
(books)
[by title]
B-class
registrations
(periodical 
 contributions)
B-class
registrations
(whole issues
of periodicals)
D-class
registrations
(dramatic 
 works)
PKZipped
text file of
transcribed
renewals
Books
with US
copyright
not renewed
1950
renewed in
1977 & 1978
          a few:
(10KB)
1951
renewed in
1978 & 1979
Don't hold your breath for transcriptions here:
there is now a searchable website at
www.copyright.gov/records/,
or telnet on over to the old system at locis.loc.gov,
enter 1 to the first question, 1 to the next question,
and h for help on searching & browsing the entries.
  a few:
(10KB)
1952
renewed in
1979 & 1980
  a few:
(15KB)
1953
renewed in
1980 & 1981
  a few:
(15KB)
1954
renewed in
1981 & 1982
  a few:
(15KB)
1955
renewed in
1982 & 1983
  a few:
(15KB)
1956
renewed in
1983 & 1984
  a few:
(15KB)
1957
renewed in
1984 & 1985
  a few:
(15KB)
1958
renewed in
1985 & 1986
  a few:
(15KB)
1959
renewed in
1986 & 1987
  a few:
(15KB)
Publication
year
A-class
registrations
(books)
[by title]
B-class
registrations
(periodical 
 contributions)
B-class
registrations
(whole issues
of periodicals)
D-class
registrations
(dramatic 
 works)
PKZipped
text file of
transcribed
renewals
Books
with US
copyright
not renewed
1960
renewed in
1987 & 1988
Don't hold your breath for transcriptions here:
there is now a searchable website at
www.copyright.gov/records/,
or telnet on over to the old system at locis.loc.gov,
enter 1 to the first question, 1 to the next question,
and h for help on searching & browsing the entries.
  a few:
(20KB)
1961
renewed in
1988 & 1989
  a few:
(20KB)
1962
renewed in
1989 & 1990
  a few:
(20KB)
1963
renewed in
1990 & 1991
  a few:
(20KB)



The US mirror of this webpage is hosted courtesy of ibiblio.org,
but webmaster@kingkong.demon.co.uk is solely responsible for its contents.