“Perpetual Copyright” and Peter Pan

One of the copyright readings for class mentioned perpetual copyright very, very briefly (found here). They mentioned Peter Pan as an example. All I knew about Peter Pan was that a hospital owns the copyright, so I went on a little mini copyright adventure to find out more. As I suspected, the real answer turns out to be slightly more complicated than implied.

According to the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s website, J. M. Barrie gifted them the rights to Peter Pan in 1929, and requested that the hospital never reveal how much money it raised. (The hospital assures us that it does not run into the millions.) The copyright expired in the UK and the rest of Europe in 1987 (50 years after Barrie’s death). However, the former Prime Minister Lord Callaghan managed to pass an exception for the hospital in a 1988 copyright bill, which granted the hospital perpetual rights in the UK.

Elsewhere in the world, the story is slightly different. Peter Pan entered the public domain in Europe in 2007 (with the exception of Spain), as it lasted until 70 years after Barrie’s death. In the US the novel is in the public domain, but the play and stage adaptations are in copyright until 2023. This is because they were published over 20 years apart, placing the play version in a later version of copyright law.

At any rate, this has been an interesting little diversion into international copyright law. If you want to know more, the hospital has a FAQ available here.

Sources:

“The History of Peter Pan and GOSH.” GOSH. Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, n.d. Web. 17 Nov 2015. http://www.gosh.org/about-us/peter-pan/history

“Copyright.” GOSH. Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, n.d. Web. 17 Nov 2015. http://www.gosh.org/about-us/peter-pan/copyright