"Copyright expired, everybody free. 2011 will be the year of Gatsby and Margarita"

A comprehensive article published last week on Il Venerdì, a weekly magazine of the Italian daily la Repubblica, is focused on various international authors whose works are now entering the public domain and the upcoming publications of many new translations (in Italian). Under the title "Copyright expired, everybody free. 2011 will be the year of Gatsby and Margarita" (full pdf here), Brunella Schisa explains that right after the 1st January 2011 deadline -- also known as Public Domain Day -- several Italian publishers will launch new translations of such masterpieces as "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov and Francis Scott Fitzgerald's best novels ("The Great Gatsby", "Tender Is the Night"). Why? Simple: according to Italian law, authors' copyright expires 70 years after their death (1940), so everybody is free to re-use their works in any fashion and format. And, guess what?, both the public and the market are craving for new versions of such classics of the world literature. A truly remarkable story! [28dec10]