Re: Re: Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book"

• Original Message ----- From: "Dodi Schultz" <SCHULTZ[_at_]compuserve.com> To: "CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property" <CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:15 AM Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book"

> Keith Tabor asks about contracts vis-à-vis *Tasini*.

> Keith, Tasini had to do with periodicals, not books. In trade books,
> authors retain the copyright. (There are exceptions, which have been
> exceptions from the get-go, mainly technological series.) Take a look at
> the books in the stores.

"Retain" copyright is not enough. The retaining must be exlusive. The question is whether the authors have also granted the publishers some copyrights in the works. Both parties can own copyrights in the same work, which likely would allow the publisher to permit Amazon to do what it did. One must look to the contract/license for its terms.

-Bodi Received on Wed Nov 12 2003 - 02:12:07 GMT