Q: Would it be possible to sell t-shirts with prints/images of works of art pre 1900 ad?
What if I were to edit them? how different would it need to be?
A:
**All copyrightable works published before 1923 are now in the public domain** (these works entered the public domain no later than 1997). There are still two issues to be concerned about before assuming work is in the public domain.
One wrinkle in this blanket statement is that the publication must have been authorized. Famously, the song "Happy Birthday" was published in 1912 in "The Beginners' Book of Songs" and again in 1915 in "The Golden Book of Favorite Songs." If you were relying on the blanket statement that, "all works published before 1923 are in the public domain," you'd have historically lost a lawsuit on that basis. The current copyright holders of "Happy Birthday" argued that these early publications were unauthorized. They argued that the first authorized publication of the lyrics to "Happy Birthday" occurred in 1935. Using either the 1912 or 1915 versions would therefore infringe on the copyright first secured in 1935.
The second wrinkle is that derivative work of this original work could still be protected by copyright. Although the original pre-1900 publication will be in the public domain, a republished version, changed in some way, may be considered a derivative work and will receive its own copyright protection.
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