In 1976 Congress abolished the perpetual copyright protection usually extended to never-before-published works. In its place a copyright expires 70 years after the author dies. For anyone who has work by authors who died before 1933, there is a "grace period" to publish or lose the rights to those works; if you publish before January 1, 2003, the copyright will be good through 2047, even for authors centuries dead. Otherwise, the work enters the public domain.

Anyone have anything written by Abe Lincoln stashed somewhere? How about great-great-great grandpa's diary (or however many 'greats' it takes to get to someone dead before 1933)? If it's not published by January 1, 2003, you've lost the copyright.

My understanding of copyright might be mistaken here, but I have been given to believe that copyright is automatically granted as a work is written. Therefore, if a work was written in 1860, its copyright has long expired even if it has not previously been published. I say this because to the best of my knowledge copyright protection extends to both unpublished and unregistered works, although obviously it's much easier to prove ownership if the work has been registered with the Library of Congree.

Luc
 

This really only affects people that might have unpublished work by authors dead longer than 70 years. If you don't have anything like that, then it doesn't matter much.
 

Luc