On 7/27/2000, John R. Levine <johnl[_at_]iecc.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 26 Jul 2000, Robert Smith <smithre[_at_]mail.ctsfw.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Someone owns a copy of a used book. They wish to sell it on Ebay.
> > To do so, they propose to scan the jacket and make it a part of
> > their listing.
> >
> > I'd advise they seek permission from the publisher to do this.
> >
> > Am I correct, or am I missing an obscure fair use principle?
>
> People have been publishing advertisements and catalogs including
> pictures of the books offered for sale for, oh, a hundred years
> or so. It seems to me that it's a little late to claim that the
> owner of a book doesn't have the right to use a picture of the
> book in an attempt to sell it.
But what about the case in which a book-cover bears an image of, say, a work of art that has been licensed from a museum or copyright owner. The publication of the book cover in a sales catalogue without license, technically will be an infringement of the underlying work. The likelihood that the owner of the underlying copyright would object is nil, but I have an example of one case in which this became an issue: (While not a reproduction for the sake of sale, the issue is similar:)
Museum One lends Museum Two one of its works for an exhibition. Without permission, Museum Two uses Museum One's work as the cover illustration of its monthly bulletin. Scholar Jones, writing about the promotion of art in today's museum environment wishes to use the bookcover as an illustration to her article. Museum One refuses permission to reproduce the underlying work because its presence on the bulletin cover is an infringement and does not conform to its policy on the reproduction of works from its collection.
Ordinarily, I'd claim "fair use" in a situation such as this, but the journal who agreed to publish the article has a policy of requiring license for all works illustrated in its pages.
Presumably Museum Two would object to this bulletin cover being reproduced in a sales catalogue.
Robt Baron
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