My reading indicate that anything published between 1924 and 1963 was copyrighten for less than thirty years. It could have been renewed for like another 70 years, but only if the copyright holder applied for the copyright extension. Otherwise it's in the public domain. Other than paying $75 for the copyright office, is there any way to tell if this copyright was extended for a particular work? I'm planning on setting up a project where I scan in old insurance related material - old books, manuals, policies, etc - and publish the material to the web, but I'm trying to reasonably stay away from copyright trampling. I'm pretty sure I'll be safe with stuff like old ads, policyholders manuals, stuff like that that is either one up or unlikely to have been republished. I'm more wary about stuff like old textbooks or books of company ratings (some of the companies that did the ratings are still around, 100 years later).