Re: Copyright in Arrangement (Was: Re: Academics and coursepacks)

On Mon, 27 Jul 1998, Daniel J. Schaeffer <daniel_schaeffer[_at_]kirkland.com> wrote:
>
> That's the real problem -- determining what is and is not in the public
> domain can be a convoluted exercise, with results of questionable
> accuracy and completeness. Hence, it would be unduly burdensome to
> require a copyright owner to disclaim public domain materials with any
> specificity.

All you have to do is to put a footnote number at the end of a passage, write a footnote for that footnote number, and provide more details in the bibliography section. The details in the bibliography should include the copyright year, in addition to the publication year, and name of copyright holder if it is different from the author. In the footnote or passage itself, any change to the passage should be highlighted clearly.

Then, on the copyright page, you just declare that the copyright does not extend to the quoted passages from the public domain sources.

The readers, if they wish, will check the bibliography to see if any of the passages is in the public domain (because some passages that were originally copyrighted when a book was first published will fall into public domain some years later).

It is not hard. It is somewhat like some companies who painstakingly list all registered and unregistered trademarks in their advertisements, manuals, brochures, and other literature. Ditto for picture credits.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Wed Jul 29 1998 - 03:27:44 GMT