I recently acquired a small set of original Thayer Magical Bulletins (1917 - 1924). Some were so brittle they began flaking apart as soon as I opened them, so I decided to scan them and digitize them immediately before they completely disintegrated over time. The originals are now carefully preserved, but if they don't survive another decade, I still have them as pdf files.

It then occured to me that as pdf files, I could share them with other magicians who also want a glimpse of the past, so I am making them available on my site. There are little "gems" of magic hidden in each one, for those who really want to take something old and make it new again. To keep out the merely curious and non-magicians, I am charging a small amount. They should all be on-line within a week.

http://www.magicnook.com/thayerBulletin/thayersTOC.htm

Those really belong to Owen Magic Supreme. Did you get permission from Owen to reproduce and sell them?
MR

No, they really belong to me. I bought the originals and that is what I have scanned. They are in the public domain at this point, so I am not selling them; simply charging a small amount to keep them out of the hands of the merely curious.

OMS claims they have recopyrighed these. This is possible under the current copyright law. They bought the rights to all of the Thayer products. They got into a big brouhaha with Orville Meyer and Burling Hull over the copyright issue. This is one reason that the Burlin Hull illusion book became so scarce.

I love a good brouhaha.

How on God's green earth does someone "recopyright" a document that was put into the public domain? Wasn't this tried with "It's a Wonderful Life"?

If they purchased the rights to the Thayer material when they bought the Thayer inventory, etc., and the original copyright on the material had not expired, then they have the right to renew the copyright for another 28 years under the old copyright law. If the timing is just right, they may have been able to squeak this in as a corporate copyright which would extend the life of the copyright 75 years.

You would have to prove that the document had actually gone into the public domain.

Harry Fox agency got a special dispensation on Happy Birthday. The copyright should have expired years ago. It didn't.

Purchasing a set of plans and scanning them does not put them into the public domain.