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A pdf creation engine with a single page React front end selector
asicath/the-equinox
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<title>keep silence</title>
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<div id="root">
<div class="div_main">
<div class="header">
<div class="super-title">SCANS FROM ALEISTER CROWLEY'S</div>
<div class="title">THE EQUINOX</div>
</div>
<div class="crumbs">
<div class="history"><a href="index.htm">Home</a> \ </div>
<div class="current">Crowley's Copright</div>
</div>
<div class="copyrightInfo" style="text-align: justify; width: 100%;">
<div>
The question of whether or not Crowley's published and unpublished texts are still under copyright comes up often.
Copyright law can be confusing and I've seen many answers based on incomplete information floating around on the internet.
In order to address requests to put certain information on this site, I'd like to layout my best understanding of the current status of Crowley's works here.
I am not a copyright lawyer, nor have I had this information reviewed by a copyright lawyer, this is just my working understanding of the issue and is subject to change.
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<div style="font-size:1.5em;margin-top:1em">
Copyright Status
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<div>
Copyright status of any particular book can vary from country to country, due to various laws and treaties a work can be in the public domain in one country even though it is still under copyright in another country.
First, lets consider the U.K. copyright status of Crowley's books that were published in the U.K.
<a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom">The Wikipedia article on U.K. copyright law</a> describes the various laws passed that have defined how long a printed work will stay under copyright:
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<div class="quote">
Under the Copyright Act 1842 the copyright period lasted for the lifetime of the author plus 7 years, or for 42 years from first publication, whichever was longer.
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<div class="quote">
The Copyright Act 1911 provided a longer copyright period, namely the life of the author plus 50 years, for works that were first published after 1 July 1912; thus the date of first publication became irrelevant, provided it was after July 1912. This was retained as the period of copyright under the Copyright Act of 1956 and under the 1988 Act.
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<div class="quote">
In 1995 the period of copyright was extended to the life of the author plus 70 years (as described above) for works that were, at that time, still within copyright anywhere within the European Economic Area. One effect of this was to impose a copyright extension of twenty years on all works that were made or published after 1911 by any person who had died after 1945, as the previous copyright period (of life plus 50 years) had not yet expired in the UK for someone who had died in 1945 or later.
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<div>
An important date to keep in mind for this discussion is that Aleister Crowley died December 1, 1947. This means that because of U.K. copyright law:
<ul>
<li>Works published before 1 July 1912 entered public domain 42 years after their first publication. <b>These are all in the public domain in the U.K. as of 1954.</b></li>
<li>Works published after 1 July 1912 have their status tied to the death date of the author. At the time when Crowley died in 1947, all of his works were set to enter public domain 50 years later, in 1997.</li>
<li>In 1995, this duration was extended from 50 years to 70 years, and since Crowley's works had not entered the public domain by that time, the date of his works entering public domain was extended to 2017.</li>
<li><b>Since this law has not changed, it is my understanding that all of Crowley's published books published after 1 July 1912 are in the public domain in the U.K. as of 2017</b></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
At the time that Crowley published his books, U.K. did not have any additional regulations regarding how the copyright came to be, simply publishing it was enough to establish copyright.
For a work to obtain copyrighted status within the U.S. very specific regulations had to be followed. In particular, the book needed to actually contain a notice that the work was copyrighted.
Usually this would be in the form of the publisher page containing the word "copyright" or the copyright symbol along with the year and the name of the copyright holder.
If a book did not contain this, it entered the public domain instantly upon publication.
Additionally, the book needed to be registered with the copyright office within the first 28 years AND this registration needed to be renewed on the 28th year.
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<div>
My own limited research has not turned up ANY registration OR renewal of books that were published while Crowley was still alive.
<b>Therefore, any of his books that were published in the U.S. during his lifetime are now in public domain in the U.S.</b>
Again, this is only from my limited research of the archives of the U.S. copyright office's records.
If it could be shown that registration and renewal did actually happen for a book, this would not apply.
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<div>
But what about the U.S. copyright status of his books that were only published in the U.K.?
On January 1, 1996, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/1995/60fr50414.html">Restoration of Certain Berne and WTO Works</a> took effect for books that were still under copyright in their home countries.
Essentially, this caused books that were published outside the U.S. to receive copyright protections as if they had been published in the U.S. AND as if they had complied with the above mentioned regulations regarding notice, registration, and renewal.
Because Crowley's works were still under copyright in the U.K. in 1996, his books are treated as though they had complied with the regulations.
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<div>
So, given that, what is the state of the U.S. copyright of his books?
A good source for understanding this aspect of copyright law is the U.S. copyright office's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.pdf">Circular 22, How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work</a>
If a book had been renewed in its 28th year, its copyright was extended an additional 28 years.
For books whose copyright was still intact as of January 1, 1978, this was extended to 67 years, for a maximum of 95 years total from the initial copyright notice.
<ul>
<li><b>All Crowley's books published in the U.K. more than 95 years ago are in public domain in the U.S. As of January 1, 2024 this means all works published prior to January 1, 1929.</b></li>
<li><b>The books that were published exclusively in the U.K. or France less than 95 years ago are still under copyright in the U.S.</b></li>
</ul>
100th Monkey Press has done an excellent job of cataloging the date of publication of Crowley's books <a target="_blank" href="https://www.100thmonkeypress.com/biblio/acrowley/books/books.htm">here</a>.
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Copyright Holders
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I believe the current U.S. copyright holder to be Ordo Templi Orientis.
From what I've read it's a complicated story, they either own it by right of inheritance OR by right of buying them from the Official Receiver, an office of the Crown.
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