Recently Asked Questions (RAQs)

A teacher would like to reprint a student workbook we can no longer find in print. We tried to get permission from the company that bought the publisher out, but they said they couldn’t help. At this point, can we prove that we have made a good faith effort to receive permission?

When it comes to digitizing large theater and music program collections, it is well-established that a library can digitize anything before 1923, and that if there are no copyright notices on them, can digitize anything before 1978.  But if there are multiple "copyrightable" elements in the works (advertisements, photos, actor biographies, illustrations, etc.) is it okay to digitize them? What is the risk in digitizing a program when there is a copyright notice on one or more element in the program, but not all of it? If a theater or musical society is defunct, is it okay to digitize the programs associated with it beyond 1978 or when it may have a copyright notice?

We are in the process of transferring old VHS tapes to DVD and then to a secure internet cloud. 
The tapes are ours ranging from 1988- 2001, we taped specific classes with numerous instructors who were aware of the taping process. Since the tapes belong to us are there any copyright issues in reproducing and offering access to for a fee through our Lakeside Learning Center, or reproducing as a DVD and selling? 
We also have very old cassette tapes of a similar nature. We possess them and instructors being taped were fully aware. 
We would like to offer these as an MP3 for paid access.

Amazon.com sells audiobooks. One of the formats is an MP3 CD. The image of an example box says the MP3 is transferable. 

My question is, if I bought one of these audiobook MP3 CDs for the library, would it be copyright infringement for me to transfer the audiobook MP3? What if I wanted to transfer it to a google drive so that it could be shared amongst a teacher and her students? Would that be copyright infringement?

Just wondering on the dynamics.

Is public domain based on the copyright of the work OR is it based on when the author died OR perhaps it is based on something else? 

Basically, how do you know if something is in the public domain? 

Thank you!