3 ms·

Does anyone know why the books involved in the lawsuit are in the public domain in the US but not in Germany?

• soneil 9y ago
  That's in the article. In the US, the copyright term (for the relevant period) was the date they were published plus n years. In (most of) Europe, it's the life of the author plus n years. So for a book published 50 years before the author died, the term expires in the US long before it does in (most of) Europe. (This has since changed in the US, but did not apply retroactively. So published+n still applies to works published before the change to life+n)