My discussion up to this point has been fairly general in that it has covered all forms of created works; especially written works. I will concentrate more narrowly on the needs of web sites from this point on. (This is in fact a good thing because there are great swatches of the copyright laws that don't apply to web sites. This is because we only have to concentrate on web sites that were created AFTER January 1, 1978, the date when the 1976 Act became law. Since the Internet itself didn't really become important before about 1987, we are in the clear!)
Next, some quick questions and answers.
For works created by the person who holds the copyright, copyright lasts from the works' creation to 70 years after the death of the author. If there are joint creators, it is in force until 70 years after the death of the last surviving author. For all others (including anonymous works or those done under a pseudonym — pen name) it lasts 95 years from the publication of the work or 120 years from its creation, whichever is shorter.
After this period, the work is then considered to be "in the public domain" so that anyone can use it. (Although if you do reuse a public domain work, it's considered good form to acknowledge the authorship, if known, and the fact that it's in the public domain.)
Copyrights can be transferred, which may change these limits. Also, since the copyright is in effect a possession of the author/creator, it can be disposed of in his or her will.
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