how long does published book remain in copyright
1 To research whether a book's copyright has been renewed, or needed to be renewed, see this article. 2  Works never published prior to 2003 (and never registered for copyright prior to 1978) are now in the public domain in the US if they are by authors who died more than 70 years before the most recent New Year's day. Djibouti copyright law specified copyrights of life+25 years for most works, as of 1996 (the latest year for which I can find a law). 2  However, they joined the Berne Convention in 2002, so they may have updated their laws since then, or do so soon.