copyright civil-procedure
Place and date of author&#39;s death and copyright
<p>Consider the following two situations:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>An author of a book dies the 1st of January of 2000, in London, at 2:05 AM, GMT. Yet, from the perspective of Washington, the author died the 31st of December of 1999, at 22:05 PM, EST. </p></li>
<li><p>An author of a book dies the 1st of January of 2000, in Washington, at 2:05 AM, EST. Yet, from the perspective of San Francisco, the author died the 31st of December of 1999, at 23:05 PM, PDT.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>In these two cases, when will the copyright of the book expire? Both the US and the UK give <em>post-mortem</em> 70 years of copyright protection to authors' material. Does the answer depend on where the book was published?</p>

<p><strong>Note</strong>: this question is particularly relevant in the context of copyright defined in terms of "end of calendar year". This seems to be the issue in the definition of copyright protection length. For instance, see page 3 of <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ15a.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this document</a> for the US, and the Notes at the end of <a href="https://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p10_duration" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>.</p>

<p>Copyright under the Berne Convention relies on the concept of &quot;country of origin&quot;. This is the country where the work was first published or, for simultaneous (i.e. within 30 days) publishing the country that gives the <em>shortest</em> copyright term. While the country of origin may be disputed, particularly for works first published on the internet, every work has one, even if a court may need to decide which it is.</p>
<p>Therefore the relevant time of death is the one in the country of origin.</p>
<p>For your UK/USA example, the country of origin if the works had been published simultaneously is the UK because, based on the time of death, it has the shortest copyright term: one year shorter than the USA</p>
<p>For a country entirely within one time zone, like the UK, this is straightforward. For countries that span multiple time zones, this will depend on the local law regarding time.</p>
<p>For example, the Australian <em>Acts Interpretation Act 1901</em> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>ACTS INTERPRETATION ACT 1901 - SECT 37</strong></p>
<p><strong>Expressions of  time</strong></p>
<p>Where in an Act any reference to  time  occurs, such  time  shall, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, be deemed in each State or part of the Commonwealth to mean the legal  time  in that State or part of the Commonwealth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At face value, as applied to the Copyright Act 1968 for an Australian work, this could mean that the work would have a years further protection in Western Australia than in New South Wales. However, such an interpretation would be unconstitutional as Commonwealth law must apply equally in each state and territory of the Commonwealth.</p>
<p>When such a case comes up, the judge would need to hear the evidence and make a decision. We cannot speculate what that decision will be but some arguable possibilities include:</p>
<ul>
<li>if the author died in Australia, the date in the place where they died</li>
<li>the date on their death certificate, being the <em>official</em> date</li>
<li>the date in the specific place where the work was created</li>
<li>the date of their death in Canberra, being the national capital.</li>
</ul>
