Step 4 Permissions

In previous posts regarding developing a high school science textbook at Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, I've touched on acquisition, planning, manuscript development and copy-editing, cover design and interior design.

I was going to discuss composition at this stage; however, I want to touch on a very important step having to do with manuscript and art package development: permissions! Whether it’s a high school chemistry textbook or a primary school textbook, we use the same permissions process.

Copyright Law

While writing and developing art packages, our K-12 authors have to be aware of the rules of permissions regarding copyright laws. KH has a permissions department that helps our authors understand the copyright laws and helps them with these needs. Basically, if they are utilizing any material beyond what they are creating, they need to request permission for the borrowed materials.

Copyright protection extends to the authors of all original works including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and certain other intellectual material. The law of copyright gives the owner the sole and exclusive right to reproduce the copyrighted work in any form and to authorize others to do so.

The following chart provides a quick reference to copyright duration.

Description of Work	Copyright Status
Published before January 1, 1923	Public domain, copyright expired
Published after 1922 but before 1964 and properly renewed (assume renewal)	Ninety-five years from date of copyright publication
Created, but not published, before January 1, 1978	Life of the author + seventy years
Created after January 1, 1978	Life of the author + seventy years
Works published anonymously or pseudonymously	Ninety-five years from publication or 120 years from date of creation— whichever is shorter
Works made for hire or by corporate authorship	Ninety-five years from publication or 120 years from date of creation— whichever is shorter