Hi There, Actually the 1996 version IS COPYRIGHTED!! But this reffers to this particular BOOK! The 1848 text is not copyrighted. So what does this mean: You cannot use this particular book to create a PG-text! But if you remove layout, just use the 1848 text part and do not state the scan source nobody can prove you violated the 1996 copyright. It is still illegal. The copyright is not on the 1848 text itself, but on the presentation of the text and book itself!! Complicated !? greetings Keith. Am 24.11.2005 um 08:23 schrieb Rod Butcher:
Jonathan Ingram wrote:
--- Rod Butcher <rbutcher@hyenainternet.com> wrote:
If a work was "first published" in 1848 it seems to meet this rule. But what is the status of say a 2002 edition of that work ? Is copyright established anew on a reprint ? Feedback so far seems to say I need to use pre-1923 editions, but the above wording seems ambiguous. It all depends on what the copyright notices at the start of the book say. Reprints of old works do not get new copyright, but new editions do. Technically only the new material is copyrighted, but it can sometimes be very hard to unpick the original material from the revised material. I have some time on my hands so I'm ready for my first contribution.. can I clear up what is the status of a new edition of an old work which does not claim copyright but neither does it state that it is a reprint ? e.g. :-
first Published 1848 This editition published 1996 Introduction and notes copyright blah blah. All rights reserved. (?? what rights ?)
The new material, i.e. intro & notes are quite legitimately copyrighted. The actual text is ancient history by now.. I could understand if this edition claimed to be a "corrected edition" based on uncovering alternative manuscript sources, but no such claim is made, so to me this might as well be a reprint of the 1848 edition - I can't see how the publisher merely resetting the type entitles it to a new copyright, especially in this age where computerisation makes such a task trivial.
thanks Rod This is
particularly annoying for some authors, with wonderful collected editions that have been 'edited' by someone who gives no indication as to exactly what they are claiming copyright over. If you are lucky, you may find a new edition of a work which only claims copyright over the illustrations, or a preface. In this case it's easy to isolate and remove the copyrighted portion of the work.
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