United States Copyright Verification

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution empowers Congress to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. The purpose of the Copyright Act is to encourage the production of copyrighted works. Because the purpose of the clause is to stimulate development of the works it protects, its application cannot result in inhibiting such progress.

For works in the United States, askmar publishing uses the following copyright flowchart to determine expirations of fixed works.

• United States Copyright Flowchart (based upon an illustration by Lisa Tittermore, updated in color by Mark Duncan, February 2010)

Works that were created subsequent to 1977 can be verified online at:

• United States Copyright Office

Works that required copyright renewal can be verified at:

• Stanford University Copyright Renewal Database

In general, listings of recipes cannot be copyrighted, however substantial instructions or directions for preparing a recipe in some cases may be copyrighted.

• U.S. Copyright of Recipes

There are a variety of uses under which a copyright item may be reproduced under “fair use.” With respect to an electronic or digital cookbook, askmar publishing considers copying of such a recipe to a personal set of digital recipes to be fair use.

• U.S. Copyright Fair Use

The Authors Registry is able to provide contact information for many authors:

• http://www.authorsregistry.org/

Google estimates that there are approximately 130 million unique books in the world as of August 2010. About 80 percent of these books have been published since 1923. Approximately 5 percent of these book are still in print. Locating the copyright holders of out-of print books can be difficult, if not impossible.