Book publishers

Richard A. Cini wrote: Here's a link for US copyright laws as used by Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To Short version: If the book was published 1978 or later, it has at least a 70 year copyright on it, possibly longer, so check it again in 2049. And, it is likely that Congress would, again, retroactively extend that if Micky Mouse, once again, nears the public domain. Things published before 1923 in the US are now public domain. After that, the rules get more and more complex. Foreign works can be even more complex, depending on the country it was published in, and the country you are in. I don't think that the existence of the publishing house would affect the copyright status of a book in any way. I doubt that books would become public domain just because the publisher went bust.