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

On Tue, 28 Jul 1998, Christopher G. Wren <cgwren[_at_]wisconsinlaw.com> wrote:

> 
>    I think it'd be interesting to see how a "scope of claim" notice
> would play out with respect to, say, law school casebooks.

I need a bit of education. What exactly is a law school casebook? How is it different from, say, a college textbook?

Instead of a blanket and standard notice, the notice can be expanded like this:

               Copyright 1998 by Books, Inc.
     Quoted passages copyrighted by their respective authors.
         Public domain portions excluded from copyright.

The rules for footnotes should remain the same. I notice that the mainstream publications are very lax in footnoting the quoted passages. Some other publications, most of which are scholarly, are excellent at footnotes.

The bibliography, however, should be expanded a bit to include the information about the copyright year and copyright holder.

Using the following as an example:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.

Say, that I am the copyright holder and the copyright year is 1998:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright same)

But, if the copyright year is 1995:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright year: 1995)

If the copyright holder is different from the author:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright holder: Wordsmith Company)

If both copyright year and copyright holders are different:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright year: 1995. copyright holder: Wordsmith Company)

If the copyright year is unknown:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright year: unkwn.)

Likewise for copyright holder:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (copyright holder: unkwn.)

In very rare case:

     Riolo, Joseph Pietro (1998) _Public Domain and Copyright:
          A Strange Symbiosis_. Buffalo: Wordsmith Company.


          (dedicated to public domain)

When a person wants to know whether he can copy a quoted passage, he will check the footnote for the name of the author and title of the book. He then check the bibliography to get the copyright year and name of the copyright holder. With these two important pieces of information, he will be able to determine whether the passage is in the public domain.

These are just the ideas. Whether they will work and be useful in the real world remains to be seen. Personally, I think that these will help people down the next generations (such like teachers who want to make and distribute to his students copies of a Shakespearean play without worrying a bit about copyright infringement) and increase their awareness and appreciation of the importance of the public domain knowledge in the society.

Just a tiny thought.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com> Received on Fri Aug 14 1998 - 00:01:19 GMT