On Wed, Sep 14, 2005 at 03:27:30PM -0500, David Starner wrote:
On 9/14/05, N Wolcott <nwolcott@dsdial.net> wrote:
Curiously the Fredonia edition of Mein Kampf, translated by James Murphy, is listed as "Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. ". This would seem to indicate no copyright in the US but perhaps copyright in EU. More grist for the mill.
I don't see any reason why Mein Kampf would be out of copyright in the US. It was under copyright in Germany in 1998, hence the URAA returned it to copyright in the US. There is no clear copyright owner, but that doesn't mean that no one owns the copyright. Given that there are many copies of this on the net, I don't see any particular reason why PG should push the envelope here.
Right. There's really no envelope to push: according to all the rules we use, this title is still under copyright protection in the US. Not being able to find the rights owner would be relevant under some of Title 17 Section 108 USC, but only applies for very limited distribution (like a library making a photocopy, not putting it on the Web). There might some changes to the US laws that will allow us to treat such copyrighted items as though they are public domain in some ways (i.e., unlimited redistribution), but today there are no such exceptions that we can apply to PG. When PG makes a "public domain" determination on an item, you can "take it to the bank." We don't add stuff to the PG collection just because it's available electronically, or because other folks are getting away with it. We're definitely interested in pushing the envelope, but in this case I don't much latitude. -- Greg