What’s the deal with copyright in fiction?

I had an issue come up in my world that I wanted to ask the sub for advice on, but before I can get to the meat of the issue, there’s prerequisite stuff I need to establish about copyright in the world of my book. <br><br>I’ve done a lot of research, but I feel like I’m still coming up short. There’s a lot of sources with a lot of contradictory information, and I’m still not sure how copyright works in the real world, let alone my fantasy world.<br><br>It’s for this reason that I’m turning to the sub. There are a lot of clever people here who are good at figuring things out, and it’s entirely possible that I’m overcomplicating things, and there’s actually a very simple answer to my questions.<br><br>To that end, I have four questions about copyright in the real world that I would greatly appreciate any answers to.<br><br>1. **How do copyrights interact with estates?** <br><br>When an author dies and ownership of their works transfers to an estate, do copyright lengths expand? That is, if copyright is life +50 years, but the copyright transfer to an estate upon the authors death, is it then the life of the person who owns the estate +50 years, life +50 +50, or what? What if the estate is administered by a group of people? What if the estate is administered by an artificial legal person (a company, a charity, etc.)?<br><br>2. **What is the deal with copyrights in multiple jurisdictions?**<br><br>Let’s say that there is an American novelist who writes a novel and publishes it in both America and Australia (for example). In this case, how do copyright laws interact between the two countries? Do the two instances of copyright run concurrently, or is there some sort of light-speed lag? That is, if the copyright in the US is life +80 years, and the copyright in Australia is life +50 years, and for example the book was published in both the US and Australia, but the author only died in the US, would the copyright stay in effect in Australia, but not the US? If there was then a US citizen who traveled to Australia and infringed on the copyright there, who would administer the prosecution of the case, Australians, Americans, or a combination of both? If it is a combination of both Australians and Americans, how would the split in administration happen? Would the Americans administer charges for infringing on the US copyright in the book, and the Australians would administer charges for infringing on the Australian copyright? If the copyright in the US and Australia had two different lengths, would the Americans administer charges for the period between the expiration of the Australian copyright and the American one?<br><br>3. **How do copyrights interact with objects with no clear author?**<br><br>This is less relevant to my world, but I think it’s an important question nonetheless, and I may as well ask it since I’m already here. How do copyrights interact with objects that don’t have a clear author? For example, folk music, folk tales, or objects that have been found with no discernible author? Who holds the copyright for these objects? If nobody holds the copyright for these objects, are they automatically in the public domain? If so, what about situations in which the author is unknown, but not necessarily anonymous? For example, what if an author wrote their work under a pseudonym, and nobody knows the play between the pseudonym and the real name? Would copyright still apply, or would it lapse into the public domain?<br><br>4. **How do copyrights interact with artificial legal people?**<br><br>This one is probably the least important one for my world, but again, since I’m already here I might as well ask. How do copyrights interact with artificial legal people (companies, charities, etc.)? If a company produces some form of media that is subject to copyright, how long does the copyright last? Do they follow the same rules as a normal person (Life + Length), or do they follow different rules? If they follow different rules, what are they? How do they change based on the type of artificial legal person (e.g. a company vs. a charity, an LLC vs. a sole proprietorship, etc.)?<br><br>Thanks for reading through all this, if you have an answer to any of these questions I would greatly appreciate it if you shared.