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Comment by nicwolff | Hacker News Reader

I have in my files a sci-fi novella written by my grandfather 100 years ago, in which by 1980 a megalomaniacal scientist has stopped up the Gulf Stream in order to plunge Europe into a new Ice Age in revenge for not respecting his genius. (I'll publish it once I get around to registering the copyright.)

It's remarkably prescient and timely now in its environmental concerns – but Pop didn't predict the success of the helicopter, so the villain is delivered to a Congressional hearing (in Washington, Missouri, whence the US capitol was moved in 1975) by a very weird VTOL hybrid airplane-balloon-helicopter:

"One by one the three retardiers ballooned above the plane like white puffs of smoke; now only the hissing of air around the struts was heard. Then the sudden whirr of the helicoptic blade and the LL-2X1 settled feather-light into her berth."

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At the risk of nit-picking, if the work was written more that 100 years ago, then the copyright has almost certainly already expired (barring some quite rare circumstances).

Nothing preventing you from publishing it, and a useful forward or other newly written content would, of course, be automatically copyrighted (copyrights, at least in the US, only need to be "registered" if you want to sue someone :-)

If it's not been published, then why would it not be copyrightable now? I don't understand. Who knows when it was first written? Is that even important?

I would love the advice of a copyright attorney about this! It was never published, so under current US copyright law https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/303 I think it is protected until 70 years after Pop's death in 1983. But I guess we'll find out for sure in a few months – I just submitted a registration application ツ

I'm a long way from a (copyright) attorney, so I really don't know what I'm talking about on the finer points.

In general, of course, the act of creating is what currently confers copyright. So if you write some code, for example, you automatically hold the copyright. No need to do anything official or call a lawyer.

But you're correct that there are exceptions for older works that were never published or formally registered under the old (pre-1978 system). So yup, my (pretty much worthless) opinion agrees with your reading that it would be 70 years after 1983. And who knows, the Mighty Mouse might might well rise up again as 2024 approaches (the current date when Mickey Mouse will otherwise enter the public domain).

But

PS. floathub.com is brilliant!

That novella sounds fun.

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