Author talk:George Orwell

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Orwell's book is technically not named "1984", but "Nineteen Eighty-Four". --4.224.108.156 22:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

This says his works aren't available until 2021, but the wikipedia article on Nineteen Eighty-Four says 2044. Whats up?

I think the date of 2044 is the correct one (for Nineteen Eighty-Four, anyway) because in 1949 (publication date), copyrights lasted 28 years, renewable for another 47 years (this was changed by the Copyright Act of 1976 to life of the author plus 50 years, extended to 70 years by the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act in 1998). So in the case of Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, the term went through 1977, when it was renewed for another 47 years, and then extended an additional 20 years in 1998. So, the term now extends through 2044, meaning that Nineteen Eighty-Four will enter the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2045 (it might be a different time in other countries). --66.254.242.78 02:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)


 * This page says it's "published in Australia and out of copyright here" https://www.planetebook.com/1984/ dulliman Dulliman (talk) 11:05, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, English Wikisource follows the U.S. copyright laws, according to which the book will enter public domain 95 years after its publication. (BTW, the book was first published by Secker & Warburg in the United Kingdom in 1949, Australian editions may have come later, but it does not matter anything to English Wikisource copyright rules.) --Jan Kameníček (talk) 12:03, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

There are some letters from his childhood, whose copyright status I couldn't attain. Sherurcij Collaboration of the Week: Author:Stratemeyer Syndicate 20:43, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

The Bern Convention specifies that if a book is published "simultaneously" in two nations, nations that subscribe to the convention must honor the EARLIER entry into the public domain, that is, that nation must put the work into the public domain at the same time as the nation of the two which places the work in the public domain the SOONEST. Nineteen Eighty-four was published in the month of June 1949 in BOTH the USA and the United Kingdom, so the work is classified as having been published "simultaneously" in both nations... The book enters the public domain in the UK January 1, 2021, and because of the "simultaneous publication provision," must and does enter the public domain in the USA on the same date. The book is ALREADY in the public domain in Russia, in the British Commonwealth outside the UK. It will enter the public domain on January 21, 2021, in the EU as well.