Yes, The Great Gatsby entered the public domain January 1, 2011, in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia that observe copyright for the author's l

Yes, The Great Gatsby entered the public domain January 1, 2011, in countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia that observe copyright for the author's lifetime plus 70 years. F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940. But in the United States, under the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1988, The Great Gatsby seems to be protected until 95 years after its first publication, which was in 1925. That may mean January 1, 2021. Project Gutenberg is well aware of the copyright terms in the countries where it operates. I am not a lawyer. It seems to me that copyright has nothing to do with your possession of a work that you obtained legally. It involves publication, duplication, public performance, and so on. A bit more about The Great Gatsby and copyright is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/09/robert-mccrum-copyright-law-kindle http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/09/robert-mccrum-co... About copyright terms in various countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_length http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_... (While we're discussing copyright for classic books, some might be interested to learn about the copyright for Peter Pan.)