Duration of Copyright

The period of time during which the law offers copyright protection to a particular work is called the “Term Of Copyright”.

Copyright protection lasts a very long time.
A work that is created and fixed in tangible form for the first time on January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author’s life plus additional 70 years after the death of the author.

Incase of joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire, the terms lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author’s death. For works made for hire, the duration of copyrighted work will be 95 years from the publication or 120 years from the creation whichever is less.