[Freepats] sf2 copyrights: "out of business" ¿so?

[Roberto Gordo Saez]

On Mon, May 28, 2007 at 01:18:06AM +0200, Marcos Guglielmetti wrote:
> What about if a company just broke and ¿what about copyright issues?

When a company disappears or an author dies, copyright is still valid.
Several years are needed before it goes into the public domain. But at
least, it may be less likely that they will sue you ;-)

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#hlc

[...]
A work that was created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on
or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of
its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's
life plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case
of "a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for
hire," the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's
death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works
(unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records),
the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years
from creation, whichever is shorter.