Human Is by Philip K. Dick is PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Here is the |ETEXT| (but I should point out the incorrect copyright date there – it should be 1954 not 1955).
This short story was published in the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories (which came out and was copyrighted in 1954).
The story’s copyright was not properly renewed. In fact, a falsified renewal was attempted in 1983!
Have a look at this:
Here is the full page:
As you can see by the following scans the claimed original publication above, for Human Is, was falsified:
Startling Stories, Winter 1955 – table of contents (includes Human Is by Philip K. Dick):
Startling Stories, Fall 1955 table of contents (note the absence of PKD):
I know that most people won’t see the point of all this, so let me lay it out for you.
By 1983, the time of the renewal attempt, the agent for the Philip K. Dick Testamentary Trust, could not legally renew stories published in 1954. By 1983 any stories from 1954 would have already become PUBLIC DOMAIN. So when the renewal form was submitted the publication dates for many Philip K. Dick stories (including Human Is) were changed to make them seem eligible for renewal. The Fall 1955 issue of Startling Stories would have had a story eligible for renewal (had it been in there) because it was published in 1955. But the actual issue that the story was really published in, the Winter 1955 issue of Startling Stories, would not have had an eligible story because it was published in 1954.
The renewal was bullshit and Human Is, by Philip K. Dick, is therefore PUBLIC DOMAIN.
Posted by Jesse Willis
