On Tue, 27 Dec 2005, Darren Burnhill wrote:
Hi,
Does PG have any future plans to ascertain the status of books for countries other than the U.S.?
It's not really possible for us to do this. We've interacted with world *experts* in copyright, and for many items there is no simple answer. Many countries don't even have a concept of "fair use," making it hard to offer guidance on what items are "safe" to view even if they're copyrighted.
Whilst I think that clarifying the status on the download page is good;
Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook.
A link to some relevant information would be better.
We decided against this because it would make it look like we're trying to give copyright advice outside of our expertise.
BTW: The submit the item link on the copyright-howto page needs updating;
Fixed! I also added two links to further information in the copyright HOWTO: http://www.gutenberg.org/howto/copyright-howto One link to John Ockerbloom's copyright FAQ (it lists countries & their terms); another to the kingkong New General Catalog of birth/death dates -- both are quite useful for determining likely copyright status for items outside of the US. But I don't want to add those same links to every download page, lest it appear that we're trying to give guidance. (Also, we already get way too many questions about foreign copyright, that we cannot answer.) -- Greg