A More Manageable Harry

We would like to post some old newspaper articles on our library's Web site. I read that print materials published before 1923 are in the public domain. Does that include newspaper articles? Also, some of the articles are from a newspaper that no longer exists. It closed in 1937 and its subscription lists were sold. Would its articles also be in the public domain?
—Collette Marsh, research librarian, Educational Research Center, Omaha (NE) Public Schools

If the newspaper and/or its individual articles that were originally published between 1923 and 1963 have not been renewed, then the material is in the public domain. That's because copyright renewal was required during this time period.

To look for renewal records, go to the U.S. Copyright Office's Web site (www.loc.gov/copyright) and click on "search copyright records." Thankfully, the office has greatly improved its search software, and searching is now relatively easy. You must search for both the newspaper title and the individual articles. (We do not know if the authors of the articles registered their works individually or not—that's why both searches are necessary.) It is unlikely that either were renewed—only an estimated 15 percent of copyright materials were ever renewed during this time period.

Works renewed from 1950 to 1963 can be found in this database and are still protected by copyright. Why? Because in 1992, Congress made renewal automatic and extended the second renewal period from 28 years to 95 years from the point of the initial publication for those works that had been renewed.

Records for copyrighted works published prior to 1950 are listed in a multivolume set called the Catalog of Copyright Entries (CCE). Large academic libraries tend to own this set. Of course, call ahead of time or ask a good-hearted academic librarian if she might check the source for you. However, I do not think you will actually need to check the CCE, because materials originally published in 1923 did not have to be renewed until 1951—the 28th year after the initial publication—so these records should be available online.

You also asked about newspapers that are out of business. Are they protected by copyright? Potentially, yes. So the search procedure described above should be performed.

We are designing mousepads for our media center and thinking of using a quote by Dr. Seuss on them. Would this be a copyright infringement?
—Betsy Wasiak, educational media specialist, Terrill Middle School, Scotch Plains, NJ

Although quotes are creative and original and qualify for copyright protection, they are valued because they are repeatedly used and attributed to the author. I would consider this a fair use. I think you would run into trouble if you planned on selling the mousepads. If you sell the mousepads, one could argue that you could be affecting the financial market for Dr. Seuss merchandise. Perhaps the heirs of Dr. Seuss already market Dr. Seuss mousepads and other accessories.

We purchased eight copies of the latest Harry Potter book for our library. Since the length of the novel may be daunting to some kids, we thought it would be helpful to separate the book into tomes of about 100 pages each and check them out to students. That way, kids would feel like they were moving faster through the book, and an entire copy wouldn't be tied up for so long. Is this a copyright no-no?
—Cathy Kim, library media specialist, Orangewood Elementary School, Phoenix, AZ

You can separate the book into sections because of a copyright exemption called "first sale." Section 109 says that once you have lawfully acquired a copy of a copyrighted work, you can dispose of it, lend it, rent it, and divide it into sections. A no-no would be exercising a copyright without the prior permission of the copyright holder unless that act was a fair use or fell under a specific copyright exemption.