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Archiver > APG > 2005-12 > 1133463807


From: "James Capobianco" <>
Subject: RE: [APG] Copy Right Advise please
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 14:03:27 -0500


Indeed, what Richard writes is correct. If one publishes simply a
reprint, with no added material, even with a copyright notice, that new
work is still in the public domain.

The only thing that can be copyrighted are creative works, or the
creative portion of works, if the work is in the public domain. The
Fiest decision basically demonstrated that not only were facts not
copyriteable (which wasn't in contention - facts have no protection
under U.S. Copyright Law), but also compilations of facts that had
little or no evidence of creativity in their presentation (in that case,
it was the alphabetical arrangement of the phone book). Feist wasn't so
much about facts but about the compilation and collection of them.

From my cursory look at the History of Pickens County that is online, it
looks like a simple reprint/reproduction of the 1935 version (I'm
guessing), without added material. If that original is in the public
domain, so is that digitized version online. (Notwithstanding the (c)
notice)

Richard, in an earlier post, mentioned "the only copyright that is valid
in the above instance is for the software that allows access to the
book." However, unless you are going to try to take that software code
and use it somewhere else (copying it), it has no bearing on determining
whether the book itself is in the public domain or not, and therefore
the PDF images of the pages. License Agreements from database vendors
that add restriction to use and dissemination are another can of worms,
but not applicable in this case (and not really copyright law.)

James

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Pence [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 1:44 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [APG] Copy Right Advise please

astaley <> wrote:
>
> As I understand it, the original book is in public domain. If that is
> so, take a look at what Gary Mokotoff wrote on this list on 17 Feb
2004 (Subj:
> "Re: Ancestry's copyright"). Basically he explained that the original
> work is still in the public domain and those that copy it have
> copyright to their version.

Did Gary have two messages on the subject of copyright that day? The
only one I found was a discussion of Feist v. Rural Telephone and had to
do with the copyrighting of facts.

I think that when a book is republished all that can be given a fresh
copyright is the format and any additional material that may have been
added.

Richard P.




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