Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like in the US The Hobbit never formally was under copyright due to not fulfilling the requirements when published. It remained that way until 1996 when URAA made the UK copyright valid in the US. Golan v Holder then affirmed that public domain works could be copyrighted under those special circumstances.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like in the US The Hobbit never formally was under copyright due to not fulfilling the requirements when published. It remained that way until 1996 when URAA made the UK copyright valid in the US. Golan v Holder then affirmed that public domain works could be copyrighted under those special circumstances.