According to the Public Domain list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_public_domain James Blish's Star Trek novelisations enter Public Domain in 2026, but do they if Star Trek is still copyrighted?
Star Trek Public Domain??
- Thread starter Ogrebear
- Start date
Perhaps it means that anything unique to the novelizations is public domain, though I doubt it.
It could be a case, where the author didn't renew the copyright depending when it was published.
Public Domain Overview
copyright.byu.edu
I would think the It's a Wonderful Life precedent would hold here -- while the film itself is public domain, the underlying story is not, and the musical score is copyrighted separately, so the film isn't free to use.
Personally, I think copyright terms are too long. A return to a maximum of 56 years seems appropriate to me. And work for hire should not exist.
Personally, I think copyright terms are too long. A return to a maximum of 56 years seems appropriate to me. And work for hire should not exist.
U.S. law gives published works from 1964–1977 a copyright term of 95 years from the date of publication. This assumes the copyrights were filed correctly in those pre-registration days. You can see the 1967 copyright in the first volume (link).
The Wikipedia article is referring to countries where the copyright term is life of the author + 50 years (Blish died in 1975). In some contexts the lifespan of the author still determines the copyright term even when the author is not the copyright holder, so there may possibly be countries where the Blish novelizations are theoretically public domain. On a practical level I doubt it matters much.
A lot of Blish's unique spins on Trek were from or inspired by his original works, like the transporter using DIRAC technology. What's the copyright status of his original writings?
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