| Public domain The public domain covers all works whose holder, the author, has been dead for more than fifty years or whose posthumous work has also been performed or published fifty years beforehand. The period extends to seventy years for musical works, with or without lyrics and is effective as of the 1st January following the demise of its author. Past that period, the work can be used without obtaining permission from the heirs and without generally having to pay them a flat fee or a percentage of the receipts. The moral rights to the work, however, remain. It is therefore not permissible to mutilate or change the general line of a work. Where a work in the private domain has been translated, the user must obtain permission from the translator, respect that translation and pay him/her dues. This requirement becomes void when the translator has been dead for longer than fifty years or if the posthumous translation performed or published also dates back fifty years. Income producing public domain
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J'affirme l'utilité de la redevance perpétuelle... Connaissez-vous rien de
plus beau que ceci ; toutes les œuvres qui n'ont plus d'héritiers directs tombent
dans le domaine public payant, et le produit sert à encourager, à vivifier, à féconder
les jeunes esprits ! Y aurait-il rien de plus grand que ce secours admirable, que cet
auguste héritage légué par les illustres écrivains morts aux jeunes écrivains vivants
!