Does Corporate Copyright Ever Expire?

“People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.” -- Dave Barry (American Writer and Humorist best known for his weekly newspaper column. b.1947)

We all know that corporations are people, right?  And people own the copyright of their work for the time they are alive plus 70 years, right?  So, if corporations are people and they never die, do their copyrights ever expire?

It turns out that, while corporations are a special sort of people, they are still … people.  And their copyrights do expire.  Here’s what one expert has to say on the subject …

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Do Copyrights Owned by a Corporation Ever Expire?
by Wilhelm Schnotz, Demand Media
Remember that old saying that reminds you nothing lasts forever? It also applies to copyrights. Copyright law only protects a creative work for a limited time -- known as the copyright term -- at which point it loses its protections and enters the public domain. Copyright holders can’t renew their copyrights on items published since 1978, and corporate and personally held copyrights eventually expire.

Copyright Duration
Copyrights held by corporations last for 120 years after they were created or 95 years after they were first published, whichever is shorter. In contrast, a work created by an individual receives copyright protection for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years, which allows the author’s estate to continue to make money on the work.
Source: http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/copyrights-owned-corporation-ever-expire-4152.html
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So how does the copyright issue affect you, a researcher in the removal of dibenzothiophene or whatever?  It means that when you author a paper for a journal that requires you to transfer copyright to the publisher of that journal, the copyright will eventually expire.  It will take a while … but it will expire and enter the public domain.

And so, the copyright on an article like the following will expire, whether it is owned by the authors or the journal …

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Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Available online 23 January 2013, In Press, Corrected Proof
Development of microwave assisted oxidative desulfurization of petroleum oils: A review
Hui Shang, Haichao Zhang, Wei Du, Zhichang Liu,
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Changping District, Beijing 102249, PR China
Abstract
Authors present a general overview of microwave applications in petroleum oxidative desulfurization (ODS). In comparison with conventional heating technologies, milder reaction conditions could be used and higher ODS rate could be achieved under microwave treatment.
Full Text Source (Subscription or Fee): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1226086X13000208
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