Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] newbie question: copyright editions of public domain works
From: Andrew Sly <[email-masked]>
To: Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:45:15 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Greg.

Please don't be afraid to ask questions...

First, the usual disclaimer. I am not a lawer--Copyright laws
are different in every country, and often in a state of flux
--etc.

Now here's my understanding of the topics you mention.
First of all, published books often claim copyright
on re-published material when it is really not
merited. However, for our purposes at PG, we can't
know for sure that editorial interventions such as
you've mentioned have not happened--without doing
a comparison with a proven public domain edition.
And if you have that PD edition availible anyway,
you may as well work from it.

(On a side note, I'll mention that I have occasionally
made some use of supposedly copyright imprints like
this before. For example if I'm reformatting a German
text to include in PG, and I get copyright clearnace
from some late 19th century edition with a hard-to-
read Fraktur font, then I may use a more recent edition
as a reference, or to do some spot-checks.)

Andrew

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Greg Smith wrote:

> I inherited from my grandfather 25 years ago 4 collections from his
> library.  He was a Baptist minister (read poor).
>
> The first collection is the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica
> published 1910-1911.  The other three collections are editions of works
> that were public domain at the time of the edition (eg `Best Known
> Works: Defoe').  The copyright dates range from the mid teens to the
> early forties.
>
> But what are these copyrights copyrighting?  I can understand editor
> comments, translations, pictures, etc.  But what if spelling/grammar was
> modernized?  Or, portions cut or moved?  Would these books (~120
> volumes) be of any use?
>
> Apologies for my ignorance,
>
> Greg Smith
>
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