Re: copyright in the digitized object?

On Mon, Feb 28, 2000, Julia Crawford <juliac[_at_]okstate.edu> wrote:
>
> Recently, our university library made available a public domain item
> (government document published in 1904) on the web in digital format.
> Specifically, we OCR'd an historical text, which is not rare, but it
> is a primary source document valuable to researchers in particular
> fields.
>
> A publisher contacted us and asked permission to capture the text from
> our web site and reprint in book format which they in turn plan to
> sell. Since the book is not rare, the publisher could certainly make
> photocopies of the original document to reprint, but prefers our text,
> for whatever reason.
>
> Of course many commercial publishers take public domain government
> documents and charge high prices for value-added services such as
> additional indexing, etc. We have put value in the document, by
> digitizing it. But other than that, the value lies in the ability
> to keyword search it, and follow the links we've provided, which
> doesn't help the publisher who will just print it. Is the value to
> the publisher that the text is digitized and can be presented in
> any manner (font, appearance, etc.), and they're not tied to a
> photocopy of the original document?
>
> Did the publisher have to ask permission or were they just being
> courteous?

There are two issues here. The first is copyright, the second contract law. Under US copyright law, one is generally not entitled to protection for efforts that are essentially "sweat of the brow." Usually, this means that databases, especially phonebooks, are not protected. It would also appear to cover the copy you made which, while taking a lot of effort, required no (or very little) original thought. It was essentially a mechanical process. This assumes of course that someone did not add annotations of some sort. In this context, there is little legal difference between copying your web page and photocopying the book.

If the university was fortunate to have a little foresight, however, it may be protected somewhat by contract law. Many sites have licenses which a visitor agrees to abide by by visiting the site. These licenses restrict the use one can make of the material available on the site. Whether such a license exists is something that can only be determined by visiting the site. Generally, to be effective, a license must force one to pass through a "click-wrap" point -- a web page where the license is made available and the person must click on a button to actively accept the license before being allowed access to the materials.

Regardless, you may be able to receive a small fee from the company. After all, you are saving them the large expense of digitizing the material themselves.

I hope this helps. There may be other issues which are determinative of your legal rights which haven't been discussed here. Obviously, before making any decisions you should consult with an attorney in your state.

David R. Hale, Esq.
Astrachan, Gunst, Goldman & Thomas, P.C. 20 S. Charles Street, 6th Floor
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
(410) 783-3539
(410) 783-3530 (facsimile)
dhale[_at_]aggt.com Received on Tue Feb 29 2000 - 14:53:37 GMT