>I knew that the 75 years rule was not a problem

Not to pick on Mike, but this is a common misconception.  *There is no
75 year rule* and hasn't been for more than four years.

When the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act was passed in 1998 by
the entertainment industry's lackeys in Congress, the duration became 95
years.  Since the Supreme Court just upheld this two months ago in
Eldred v. Ashcroft, no materials will enter the public domain until
2019.  Of course, there's nothing preventing Disney et al. from lobbying
them to extend it again and again.

Pre-1923 materials are still free to use, aside from the image issues
we've been discussing here.  Post-1922 items may be, but you'd have to
research that on a case by case basis, and that's where sites like
<http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/cce/> come in handy.  It's a
project to scan the list of copyright renewals at the Library of
Congress.  These are scanned images; transcriptions may be found at
<http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ccer/ccer.htm>.

Further information may be found in "Library Digitization Projects and
Copyright" by Mary Minow, who is both a librarian and a lawyer and
eminently qualified to discuss this subject.

<http://www.llrx.com/features/digitization.htm>

Bob Sullivan  <[log in to unmask]>
Schenectady County Public Library (NY)  <http://www.scpl.org/>
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>