Nicolas writes in to ask:
“Could you tell me the difference between “PUBLIC DOMAIN” and “LIKELY PUBLIC DOMAIN”? And do I have to request publishing rights to Philip K. Dick Trust?”
Nicolas’s question refers to my Philip K. Dick’s PUBLIC DOMAIN short stories, novelettes and novellas post which is my way of cataloging of all of PKD’s short fiction that is PUBLIC DOMAIN. “LIKELY PUBLIC DOMAIN” is just my way of saying – “this story needs more investigation.” As I find evidence for the falsification of a copyright renewal, a lack of a renewal, and such, I post the evidence that supports PUBLIC DOMAIN status.
You do not have to request rights from the Philip K. Dick estate for anything that is PD. In fact doing so is probably more likely to get you sued (if THIS case is anything to go by).
Let’s take for example Philip K. Dick’s Beyond The Door, a very short story that we talked about in SFFaudio Podcast #122. This story is PUBLIC DOMAIN, available on Gutenberg, LibriVox and I’ve seen a short film version up on YouTube.
You can do anything you like with Beyond The Door, because it is PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Posted by Jesse Willis