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the date of death of the author of the copyrighted work, or a statement that the author is still living on a particular date. The statement shall identify the person filing it, the nature of his interest, and the source of his information, and shall comply in form and content with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation. The Register shall maintain current records of information relating to the death of authors of copyrighted works, based on such recorded statements and, to the extent he considers practicable, on data contained in any of the records of the Copyright Office or in other reference sources.
(e) Presumption as to Author’s Death.—After a period of seventy-five years from the year of first publication of a work, or a period of one hundred years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first, any person who obtains from the Copyright Office a certified report that the records provided by subsection (d) disclose nothing to indicate that the author of the work is living, or died less than fifty years before, is entitled to the benefit of a presumption that the author has been dead for at least fifty years. Reliance in good faith upon this presumption shall be a complete defense to any action for infringement under this title.
§ 303. Duration of copyright: Works created but not published or copyrighted before January 1, 1977
Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1977, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1977, and endures for the term provided by section 302. In no case, however, shall the term of copyright in such a work expire before December 31, 2001; and, if the work is published on or before December 31, 2001, the term of copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2026.
§ 304. Duration of copyright: Subsisting copyrights
(a) Copyrights in Their First Term on January 1, 1977.—Any copyright, the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1977, shall endure for twenty-eight years from the date it was originally secured: Provided, That in the case of any posthumous work or of any periodical, cyclopedic, or other composite work upon which the copyright was originally secured by the proprietor thereof, or of any work copyrighted by a corporate body (otherwise than as assignee or licensee of the individual author) or by an employer for whom such work is made for hire, the proprietor of such copyright shall be entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright in such work for the further term of forty-seven years when application for such renewal and extension shall have been made to the Copyright Office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright: And provided further, That in the case of any other copyrighted work, including a contribution by an individual author to a periodical or to a cyclopedic or other composite work, the author of such work, if still living, or the widow, widower, or children of the author, if the author be not living, or if such author, widow, widower, or children be not living, then the author’s executors, or in the absence of a will, his next of kin shall be entitled to a renewal and extension of the copyright in such work for a further term of forty-seven years when application for such renewal and extension shall have been made to the Copyright Office and duly registered therein within one year prior to the expiration of the original term of copyright: And provided further, That in default of the registration of such application for renewal and extension, the copyright in any work shall terminate at the expiration of twenty-eight years from the date copyright was originally secured.
(b) Copyrights in Their Renewal Term or Registered for Renewal Before January 1, 1977.—The duration of any copyright, the renewal term of which is subsisting at any time between December 31, 1975, and December 31, 1976, inclusive, or for which renewal registration is made between December 31, 1975, and December 31, 1976, inclusive, is extended to endure for a term of seventy-five years from the date copyright was originally secured.
(c) Termination of Transfers and Licenses Covering Extended Renewal Term.—In the case of any copyright subsisting in either its first or renewal term on January 1, 1977, other than a copyright in a work made for hire, the exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a transfer or license of the renewal copyright or any right under it, executed before January 1, 1977, by any of the persons designated
