Adventures in the Public Domain

I decided, on a whim, to do some poking around at TV Tropes. Yes, I realize that it is an extremely dangerous venture. Hasn't stopped me though. I ended up on the page about Public Domain Characters and started clicking through to see what qualified. It should be noted that this usually impacts what I decide to get from Project Gutenberg, and on a whim started reading through the description, which is a lot easier to understand than The Other Wiki. To put it bluntly, anything that was written prior to 1922 is in the public domain. In terms of what I read, this includes Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne's House of Dreams, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla of Ingleside. Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside being written in 1936 and 1939 respectively aren't up for the terms of the U.S. definition of "Public Domain."

And it doesn't look like they ever will be. Most likely because of the constant flux of copyright laws in the US. While the books are public domain elsewhere (Canada and Australia, for example), because of the screwy ways the current U.S. copyright laws, nothing new was added to the public domain in 2010, and it doesn't look like anything will be entering the public domain in 2011 either. As it stands I can buy the remaining two books off of Barnes and Noble for my NOOK without issue, it's now tracking down a copy of The Blythes are Quoted that's becoming a bit sticky. Apparently it was published in 2009 in a limited run. I can't find it on Barnes & Noble or on Amazon. Well, scratch that, I can find them, but it's either ridiculously overpriced or has to be imported. Seriously Canada, why are you holding out on us?

At any rate, in my constant quest for literature, I find the public domain a rich source for reading material, but sometimes there are titles that I want in particular but can never have.