Later Compilation of Scientific Symposia Abstracts

Greetings,

This is my first post. My thanks in advance to any of this forum's subscribers who comment on the following problem:

A scientific association has engaged in annual meetings for about thirty years. The association has each year solicited scientific abstracts of research in the field and presented selected submissions in print form along with lecture presentations at the annual meetings (each year the printed abstracts are presented in compiled form for meeting participants.) These annual compilations have not carried any copyright notice or reservation of rights. Many of the abstracts never appeared in any other forum or publication. The contributors have not executed any written licenses of any sort. Now the scientific association wishes to republish all the past annual compilations in a single volume. The motive is less commercial and more towards accessibility and because there is a belief that scientific findings in the field are given more credit if they have appeared in a volume with Library of Congress id and statistics, etc.

I have concerns that the scientific association will need new licenses to publish all the 30 years' authors' works. My theme: regarding balancing general issues of Sections 106 and 201 and scope of original license issues against Section 201(c), Fair Use and, where applicable to earlier publications, 1909 Act Copyright Notice issues. I think the scientific association can proceed based on the last three items above.

Best regards,

Bradley G. Smith, Esq.
<bradley_g_smith[_at_]sprynet.com> Received on Fri Jun 25 1999 - 13:40:57 GMT