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I recently read Looking at Women Looking at War by Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who was killed by a Russian missile striking a restaurant she was eating at in 2023. Several of her friends published the book she was working on at the time posthumously.

I noticed the following on the copyright page:

First published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group

LOOKING AT WOMEN LOOKING AT WAR. Copyright © 2025 by Victoria Amelina.

I was somewhat curious about the copyright at the end, given that that was a year and a half after she was killed by the Russians.

What is the usual copyright law (and procedure) for posthumously published books like this? Is the copyright still assigned to the author (or at least to their estate)? What about other legal arrangements like authorizing the publication and signing publisher contracts - who usually does that?

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70 years from publication for posthumous works

The normal rule in Ukraine is that copyright lasts for 70 years after the author dies, counting from 1 January in the year following death. If the work is co-authored, as might be the case for works edited by someone else after the first author’s death, it is based on the last author to die.

However, for posthumous publications made within 30 years of the author’s death, the term is 70 years from year of publication in Ukraine.

Copyright is a right that can be inherited, so the current owner of the copyright is whoever the author’s heirs are, or, if the estate has not yet been distributed, the trustee of the estate. They are the ones who can authorise any dealings with the copyright and they are the ones with a right to sue for infringement.

Of course, the copyright period in other countries depends on local law, the country(s) of first publication, and how that interfaces with the Berne Convention.

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  • So, they're correct in listing the copyright as 2025 (the publication date) rather than 2023 (when the author died)? Commented Apr 13 at 13:43
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    @EJoshuaS-StandwithUkraine The date in a book is usually the date of publication. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with copyright. Commented Apr 13 at 21:01
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    Copyright notices primarily come from the former US policy of not permitting copyright on works without a proper copyright notice, which (in most cases) had to include the date of publication (and at the time, the copyright ran for x years from publication, so the date of publication was important.) Commented Apr 13 at 23:39
  • Good answer, squares w/ laws in most countries. (Her murder is incomprehensible. RIP.) Commented yesterday
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life+70

The normal time of copyrighted works is that the author, no matter whether alive or dead, gets the rights at the moment of creation. They persist until 70 years after the death of the author, and are inherited by the heirs of the author. So, the copyright under the general rule will end after 2093 because the author died in 2023.

The work is technically a nachgelassenes Werk (inherited work), so we need to check if the work might qualify differently too. Those could fall under §71 UrhG, if the normal copyright had lapsed while the work was unpublished. Then the first allowed publisher would get a special 25 year copyright starting at the publication year. However, that does require the author to have died more than 70 years ago, so would only apply to works that have been written and gone unpublished since (currently) 1955.

But since the death happened in 2023 and the publication in 2025, in Germany the normal term applies, so life+70, no extension.

Though something strange happens if someone else completes the work to a substantial part: then that person can become a co-author, and that would grant copyright and their life+70 would determine the lapse of copyright on the work. However, such a person would need to be disclosed and have done more than just lectoring and editing.

life+70

17 USC 302 dictates the length here, with the same life+70 rule Germany uses, though there also is the last surviving coauthor rule. Not from the date of publication, but from death of author, so again, 2093. Rights also are inheritable, and can be assigned by the heirs.

Again, a coauthor would extend the rights to their life+70.

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The other two answers are correct as far as they go. In answer to the second part of the question:

What about other legal arrangements like authorizing the publication and signing publisher contracts - who usually does that?

The copyright owner. Initially, in the case of a posthumous production, the author's estate, either directly, as managed by the administrator of the estate (a.k.a. the executor), and the assignee of the copyright, if the administrator of the estate transfers it from the estate to another person or entity in the course of estate administration.

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