Re: Anonymous poems

I am wondering what folks on this list think of this as a strategy -- not just in relation to the presented problem, but as a strategy to recommend to students who wish to use certain material in a work, such as a web site, but who are unable to find the source of the work to ask permission.

If the value of the work is relatively low and/or the use minimal (i.e., any anticipated license payment based on common industry standards would be relatively low, so there is not much risk) and a diligent search for the owner has been made, publish the work with a statement such as the following:

"Diligent effort has been made to identify the creator, and presumably copyright owner, of this work. But the creator/owner could not be identified. If you are the creator/owner of this work, please contact me (us) immediately and I (we) will arrange for appropriate compensation for this use of your work and/or remove the reproduction from any future publications. My (our) goal has been to further the benefit to society from the republication of this work, not to avoid any obligations to the rightful owner."

Nancy

Nancy Willard, M.S., J.D.

Center for Advanced Technology in Education University of Oregon, College of Education E-mail: nwillard[_at_]oregon.uoregon.edu
URL: http://netizen.uoregon.edu

Responsible Netizen Institute
URL:http://responsiblenetizen.org

>
> At 10:48 AM 9/25/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >Dear list,
> >
> >
> >These poems have been posted on various educational sites on the Internet,
> >always with the attribution "author unknown." They appear to be modern--
> >say within the last 20 years, so they wouldn't have passed into the public
> >domain.
> >
> ><snip>
> > > > Dear listmembers,
> > > >
> > > > I am a librarian working with a professor who wants
> > > > to include two
> > > > anonymous poems in a book he is writing. His
> > > > publisher edited the poems
> > > > out of his text because he doesn't have copyright
> > > > permission to use
> > > > them. So far I have been unsuccessful in tracking
> > > > down the authorship of
> > > > these doggerel style poems. My question for the
> > > > list is: If a work is
> > > > anonymous and hasn't been published, and a concerted
> > > > effort has been made
> > > > to determine ownership, how great a risk would it be
> > > > to reprint it in a
> > > > published book?

<snip> Received on Fri Sep 27 2002 - 10:39:01 GMT