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The answer to this question is somewhat complex and depends on the country whose copyright laws you are talking about. Most copyright-abiding countries have ado
by bombastry 6y ago
The answer to this question is somewhat complex and depends on the country whose copyright laws you are talking about. Most copyright-abiding countries have adopted a copyright length of Life + 70 years, but several (most notably Canada) use Life + 50 years. However, there are a lot of exceptions in many of these countries regarding works created in the mid-20th century. The US, incredibly, has a copyright of 95 years for works published between 1924-1977, but a term of Life + 70 years for works published after that.
Since the beginning of this year, the original German edition of the book that was published in 1924 is in the public domain in the US (and most likely only the US). Unfortunately this applies only to this edition and not to any translated versions.
I looked around the front matter of the book and did not see any mention of a translator; presumably this means that Courant translated this himself. This means as soon as 50 years has elapsed from Courant's death (in 1972), all editions will be in the public domain in Canada and a few other countries (in 2023). In most other countries, this book will be in the public domain 20 years later than that (in 2043). The US is once again exceptional, where each edition will enter the public domain separately, 95 years after their publication. The English version of Volume 1 of this text in the Amazon preview appears to have been published in 1953, which would mean it would be in the public domain in 2049, well after it would be available in virtually every other country in the world.
Of course, all of this discussion above assumes that copyrights don't get extended again before these works enter the public domain. The US Supreme Court has ruled that arbitrarily extending copyrights before they expire is sufficient to satisfy the "limited Times" mentioned in the Constitution; what matters is apparently that the copyrights are set to expire at some point, not that they ever actually do.
- bobcostas55 6y agoSomeone could produce a new, free version from the now-liberated original German though.
- TomMarius 6y agoSomeone with GPT-3 access could give it a go - it is able to translate, right?
- snazz 6y agoGPT-3 guesses the next word or words after a given input, allowing it to write articles that make at least some sense. Translation of a textbook (especially math) would be way out of its wheelhouse.
- bobcostas55 6y agohttps://www.johnfaben.com/blog/gpt-3-translations https://www.johnfaben.com/blog/gpt-3-translations Or check section 3.3 in the paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.14165.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.14165.pdf
- bombastry 6y agoThat's true. I found a copy of the original German (unfortunately in scanned, DJVU form), but it was somewhat tricky to find. This comment inspired me to upload it to the Internet Archive so that others can access it more easily (https://archive.org/details/methoden-der-mathematischen-erster-Band-1924 https://archive.org/details/methoden-der-mathematischen-erst...).
- smnrchrds 6y ago> Most copyright-abiding countries have adopted a copyright length of Life + 70 years, but several (most notably Canada) use Life + 50 years. Canada is now Life + 70. Article 20.62 of CUSMA (new NAFTA) requires copyright term to be no less than that. https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/assets/pdfs/agreements-accords/cusma-aceum/r2-cusma-20.pdf https://www.international.gc.ca/trade-commerce/assets/pdfs/a...
- bombastry 6y agoThanks for that information. I had not known that was a part of CUSMA. From reading a Canadian law firm's analysis of the changes (https://www.blakes.com/insights/bulletins/2020/ip-post-nafta-what-cusma-coming-into-force-means-f https://www.blakes.com/insights/bulletins/2020/ip-post-nafta...), Canada has 2.5 years (until the end of 2023) to enact this change. This can also be seen in the link you provided in Article 20.89.4.c. (The link I provided mislabels this as Article 20.90. or perhaps refers to an alternate draft of the document.) It appears that Canada has not enacted this law just yet, although I may be mistaken about that. Depending on when they do, Courant's work may or may not enter the public domain in 2023, although it seems more likely than not that the copyright term will be extended by then.