4 ms·
They're referring to Golan v Holder, which affirmed that the US could retroactively restore copyright to works that had fallen into the public domain in the US
by jjk166 5y ago
They're referring to Golan v Holder, which affirmed that the US could retroactively restore copyright to works that had fallen into the public domain in the US under the US's old copyright laws, but which remained protected by foreign copyright laws which the US had adjusted to be in compliance with. So basically The Hobbit, like many other works, was copyright protected in other countries, but had fallen into the public domain in the US; when the US agreed to honor the foreign copyrights, it became copyrighted in the US as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_v._Holder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_v._Holder
- SahAssar 5y agoSeems like they are related, from reading https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2011/10/one-public-domain-to-rule-them-all/ https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2011/10/one-public-dom... Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like in the US The Hobbit never formally was under copyright due to not fulfilling the requirements when published. It remained that way until 1996 when URAA made the UK copyright valid in the US. Golan v Holder then affirmed that public domain works could be copyrighted under those special circumstances.