This HTML conversion is copyright 2009 John Alan Elson all rights reserved.

The original book, published by Morgan and Lester was Copyright 1954. For works published from 1923 to 1963 registration was required and gave Copyright protection for 28 years. Registration could be renewed for another 47 years, later extended to 67. Such renewal had to occur during the 28th year. If it was not renewed, the work entered the public domain at the beginning of the 29th year.

The Stereo Realist Manual was published in 1954. The original Copyright term ended at the end of 1982. Continued Copyright protection required a renewal in 1982. The U.S. Copyright office online catalog contains renewals from 1978 on and no record of such a renewal exists.

This means that The stereo Realist Manual fell into the public domain on Jan 1, 1983.

This is actually not that unusual, it was pretty rare for the copyright on out of print books published before 1963 to be renwed, and by 1983 The Stereo Realist Manual was long out of print!

Of course, the Stereo Realist Manual contains a lot of material from various sources and it is possible that some of this material has a Copyright of its own. If so, then the public domain status of the book itself doesn't mean that such other material is now public domain. Most of the material in the Stereo Realist Manual was not published prior to this work and so is covered only by the Copyright of the book itself. Any previously published material falls under the same Copyright rules, that is, the original term was 28 years and continued protection required renewal.

Inquiries regarding such material show no evidence of current Copyright.

About the Stereo Realist Trademark:
The David White company, later renamed Realist Inc. and changed back to David White company in 1990, was the original holder of the Stereo Realist trademark. It is in that context that the trademark was used in the Stereo Realist Manual. The trademark expired and in 2001 was registered by John J. Zelenka. The mention of the trademark here has no connection with the current trademark holder and is niether a disparagement nor an endorsement of any products sold under such trademark presently or in the future.