Derivate work from uncopyrighted(?) work

Someone who works in our Center for International Trade & Development has approached me with a question about an English- /Spanish-English glossary of agricultural terms. This glossary, according to the title page, was:

   Compiled by: The American Language Center at American      University, Washington, DC

   Revised by: The Rockefeller Foundation, Quito, Ecuador,      August 1972

   Reprinted by: I.N.I.A.P, Quito Ecuador, September 1972

   There is no copyright notice on the work that I can find.

This copy itself is a poor photocopy. What they want to do is retype the document in a more user-friendly format and then print and distribute this to teachers, business people, and others they assist. They only plan to charge for the cost of the photocopies, not for their labor. They would leave the title page in its original format but would probably add something at the bottom of this list of "contributors" to the effect that they had revised and reprinted it. They are not interested in obtaining any copyright rights themselves for their reformatted version.

My questions are:

1. Without a copyright notice and a time period of not later than 1972, would this be protected by copyright in the US?
2. If it is protected, which of the parties on the title page would be the one to contact to get permission to create and distribute this (derivative?) work?

Is there anything else that they should be worried about, based on the above scenario, that I have not asked about?

Jennifer Paustenbaugh
OSU Patent & Trademark Library
Stillwater, OK 74078
(405) 744-7086
(405) 744-7083 (FAX)

jpaust[_at_]okway.okstate.edu Received on Wed Dec 07 1994 - 20:01:30 GMT