Re: familiar quotations

On 12/20/98, Jerald Gnuschke <gnuschke[_at_]technopatents.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/18/98, Lance Purple <lpurple[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 16 Dec 1998, Laura Michel <angelhumphrey[_at_]hotmail.com> asked:
> > >
> > > I'm setting up a website that I'd like to include an "uplifting
> > > tidbit" each day, kind of along the style of Reader's Digest
> > > stuff... I'd like to know what sources I can use to find anecdotes,
> > > tidbits, quotes, facts and figures without worry of needing
> > > permission to use them. Is it enough just to state where the item
> > > was found for some things? If I need to get permission from HOW
> > > AND WHERE do I turn???
> >
> > You can always use quotations from public-domain sources, such as
> > Shakespeare, the Bible, etc. Another excellent source would be
> > the 1901 edition of _Bartlett's Familiar Quotations_ ; BUT you'd
> > have to get hold of a used copy, and type in the desired quotes
> > yourself, since the only on-line version I can find has various
> > unspecified "additions" copyrighted by Columbia university.
>
> I'm a little unclear on the law for updated compilations such as the
> Columbia University online edition of Bartlett's mentioned above. My
> speculation is that use of the unspecified additions would be a fair
> use (or perhaps an implied license?). Columbia would otherwise obtain
> a virtually perpetual copyright through occasional "unspecified "
> additions. Distribution of the public domain work would be chilled
> because nobody could be sure if they were dealing with the original or
> Columbia's copy with "unspecified" additions (unless everyone obtained
> a copy of the 1901 edition).
>
> Anybody care to comment on the effect of not specifying what additions
> are new?

This puzzles me just a bit. I had always assumed that Bartlett's was published so that you could find the quotation and cite it correctly. It would seem to me that they would be killing the market for their work by then restricting use of it's contents. Also, since it's contents are "Familiar Quotations" how would they make a case that would prove that the quote from Thomas Jefferson or whoever that you used came exclusively from their work and not from another source?

Bartlett's, to me, would just seem to be the safest source for this use.

Leah

Leah Gadzikowski
<lrgadz01[_at_]gwise.louisville.edu> Received on Wed Dec 23 1998 - 19:56:35 GMT