old books published online

Mark Phillip Walters

The book will need to be pretty old to be in the public domain. If the work was published in the United States before 1923, it is in the public domain whether or not it was published with a copyright notice. If it was published in the United States before 1977 without a copyright notice, it is in the public domain. If it was published before March 1, 1989 but after 1977, without a copyright notice and without subsequent registration, it is in the public domain.

Determining copyright term for older works can be very tricky because different rules apply depending on the publication status of the work (published or unpublished), notice (with or without), the date of first publication, and the location of publication (inside or outside the U.S.).

If your book is in the public domain, that doesn't necessarily mean you are free to copy it and publish it online. Depending on how you came into possession of the book, you may have agreed (whether you realize it or not) not to publish it and not to make additional copies. Contract law may apply to how you use public domain works and may prevent your free use and dissemination of such works. It is always a good idea to ask the person from whom you obtained the book if it was provided with any restrictions on copying or publication. Also, you may think the book is "old," but it may have been republished more recently with additional features (like a foreword, tables of contents, indexing, etc.) that make it an entirely new work, protectable by the "new" author. While only the new features are protected by copyright, your publication of the entire book may be a technical violation of copyright law.

Here is a link to a very handy chart that will help you determine if your particular book is covered by copyright or in the public domain.

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

Jason Adam Dickstein

Mark Phillip Walters' answer is an excellent one.

There are, however some "really old books online" that you can download. Project Gutenberg has been collecting and digitizing public domain texts since 1971. You can find the project's website at http://www.gutenberg.org/ and you can find out more about the history of the project at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg.

Even with Project Gutenberg, there are license restrictions (as Mr. Walters' suggested in his answer). For example, you may download and use their books for free, but if you charge money to republish them then you must pay a royalty to Project Gutenberg.