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

On 29 Jul 1998 Daniel J. Schaeffer <daniel_schaeffer[_at_]kirkland.com> wrote:
>
> Again, we're talking about public domain status, which I think you'll
> agree can be difficult to pin down. Also, we're talking about someone
> copying from a published work rather than putting together his own work.
> IMHO, If someone wants to use a portion of a published work, then he had
> better be pretty sure the portion is in the PD, or that the use is fair
> use, or else he's infringing.

And that's where I disagree. If a publisher is putting out a mixture of PD and copyrighted stuff and slapping a copyright notice on the entire work, I believe that the notice ought to be considered defective, since it doesn't perform the function that a notice ought to perform: informing the reader that the material is copyrighted.

> As for publishers "claiming more copyright than they have" -- what does
> this mean? If something is in the PD, then a publisher can't claim
> copyright in it, regardless of what the copyright notice says.

That's not true at all. A publisher can (and many do) make many claims, whether they're founded in law and fact or not. A copyright notice is a claim of copyright. My position is that when a publisher is making a claim with its notice, it ought to be specific.

> (A publisher may be edging on copyright misuse or something like that if
> it does so.) But if I'm a publisher and someone copies my book, you can
> bet I want to be able to "inhibit" him -- unless the portion is in the
> PD or the copying is fair use.

That "unless" is a big part of it, don't you think? The inhibition I object to is publishing a new copy of the public domain "Dracula," with a new copyrighted forward or cover art, slapping the same type of copyright notice on the published work as though it were all protected by copyright, and thereby inhibiting the public from copying the public domain material, which they have every right to copy.

--
Terry Carroll       |    
Santa Clara, CA     |    
carroll[_at_]tjc.com     |       
Modell delendus est |