Category talk:Public domain books

Worldwide status

I've removed all of the 19th and 20th century books-by-century/decade/year categories from this category, because their inclusion was based on US copyright law only. For example, if an author wrote a book in 1890 but lived until 1940 (which is certainly possible), her work would still be under copyright in the EU (and much of the rest of the world). Mexico's copyright lasts 100 years after the creator's death, so you need to go back to the mid 19th century (at least) to be certain that a given work is in the public domain worldwide. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 14:48, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Unless we know the copyright laws of every country, we cannot be certain – there may be a country that has longer lasting copyright protection than Mexico. What decade should we add as the most recent? 1810s? McLerristarr / Mclay1 15:06, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mexico's is the longest at life + 100 years (per List of countries' copyright length). Although it's vanishingly unlikely, someone could have written a book in 1800 at the age of 10, lived to be 120, and their Mexican copyright would still be in force today. -Jason A. Quest (talk) 15:41, 14 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]