Carrie on Copyright

Carrie Russell, the American Library Association's copyright specialist, will answer selected questions from readers. Send questions to prx-slj@reedbusiness.com, with 'copyright' in the subject line. Note: Carrie's comments are not to be considered legal advice.

'My wife is a school academic counselor and has written a play based on 'Little Red Riding Hood.' Plans are in the works to publicly advertise the play, which will be performed in schools and libraries for a small fee. The fee will be used to cover basic expenses, with the balance going to an endowed scholarship fund. My question to you regards possible copyright infringement. Has 'Little Red Riding Hood''s copyright protection expired? Do you foresee legal problems if we present the play? Are we entitled to use pictures of the Wolf and Grandmother that have been drawn by our artist without liability?'

The Brothers Grimm story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' was published in the 1800s (probably 1821, based on our cursory search), so that means it's in the public domain. When works are in the public domain, no one holds the copyright. This means that works can be reproduced, distributed, and so on without permission. In this specific case, the school counselor is not infringing copyright by creating a derivative version of 'Little Red Riding Hood.' The public performance of the work, even for a fee, is also not an infringement.

To determine when or if sources are in the public domain, see 'When Works Fall Into the Public Domain' (cidc.library.cornell.edu/copyright). These excellent online charts address both published and unpublished works, and cover all of the complexities for determining the correct duration of copyright. By the way, the term of copyright has been extended four times during the history of copyright law, so these charts are a godsend. The current (and may I say, ridiculously long) term of copyright is the life of the author plus 70 years, or 120 years for anonymous or pseudonymous works and works made for hire.

The pictures of the Wolf and Grandmother, if original works, can also be used as long as you have the permission of the artist. My assumption is that the artist has been hired specifically to do these drawings for the school group and has thus agreed that the drawings can be displayed.