Re: Copyright and production of simplified readers

In-Reply-To: <list-13383240[_at_]cni.org>
Benedetta Bassetti wrote:

> Our questions are:
> 1) since we are writing our own version of the story, there should be
> no copyright problems. Still, we are summarizing someone else's novel.
> What are we supposed to do with regards to copyright?

I am not a lawyer, and if I were I would not be giving legal advice here, but:

• Generally speaking, I think that would be considered making a "derivative work" from the original novel - just as a film script would be. This would need a licence from (almost always) the author.
• What jurisdiction is involved? This *may* make a difference - though I cannot think of any that has an educational "exception" to the author's right so wide that it would cover this.

> 2) Can we use the title of the original novel and the author's name, =
> while still making clear that this is a simplified version and not the =
> original novel?

Only with permission of the author. If the jurisdiction is *not* the US, you would risk action for infringing the author's moral rights to be identified as author of their work and only their work.

> 3) if neither of these is possible, is it possible to use novels by =
> authors who are dead,

If they have been dead 70 years. (In almost all jurisdictions.)

>or in countries not covered by copyright?

183 countries belong to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (http://www.wipo.int/members/en/) and on a quick search I think you'd find yourself translating from a Polynesian language.

*ONLY* for the amusement of the professors on the list: it is possible to read the EU's "InfoSoc Directive" provisions on versions for people with disabilities to include a right to make versions for the, er, "hard of thinking". But don't tell certain newspaper proprietors. Cobber.

Mike Received on Tue Apr 11 2006 - 20:00:31 GMT