Lee Passey wrote:
Rod Butcher wrote:
I'm still faced with wondering how Wordsworth Classics UK can claim a "presentation of text format" copyright on books whereas Penguin Classics doesn't.
Because some publishers are not troubled by making fraudulent claims. In the United States at least it is not illegal to claim a copyright when there is none in fact, although from time to time there are proposals to change the law. Of course with the Berne convention implementation act no claim is required for copyright to attach (this message, for example, is copyrighted without me doing a thing) so it is best to simply ignore copyright notices, or the lack thereof, and make decisions based on application of local law, such as by looking at the author's date of death, or a books publication date.
See "http://www.brooklaw.edu/faculty/news/mazzone_legtimes_2003-11-17.pdf"