Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcuhb!hp-ses!hpcc01!hpwrce!howeird
From: howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM (Howard Stateman)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Copyright Free or not?
Message-ID: <7650006@hpwrce.HP.COM>
Date: 31 May 89 19:20:09 GMT
References: <5829@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: Ye Olde Salt Mines
Lines: 43

>Dover could have imposed compilation copyright on the whole book.  In
>fact, they did.  But they _generously_ (no smiley, I mean it) allow
>you to use a few illustrations.  They retain the right to republish,
>including electronically.
> 
>A gross generalization, but Dover owns copyright in those books.  Scanning
>copyright material is illegal.
>utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bnr-public 

It is not legal to copyright public domain materials. What Dover did
was to compile a set of free clips, and then sell them. While they
are counting on the proceeds from the book to pay for the editing
costs, and make a profit, they do not own the copyright for the
artwork inside the book. 

An example of this for you:

The US Constitution is in the public domain, and many many copyrighted
books include the U.S. Constitution. This doesn't mean that the
book publisher can keep you from scanning in the U.S. Constitution and
using it as you want, where you want, when you want to, in whole or
in part. Ir means the book publisher is hoping to make a profit by 
selling a book which has the U.S. Constitution included in it. 

I'll go you one further. There are publishers who sell the U.S. Constitution,
and nothing else. Just the original, untouched document reproduced on
parchment paper. They cannot stop you from doing the same thing. They
have no copyright on this document. But you have no power to stop them
from selling it, since no one owns the rights, or rather, the public
owns the rights.

So Dover is not being generous. They are being greedy, trying to
make money from a reproduction of something in the public domain,
and trying to tell you that you don't have full reproduction rights,
when you definitely do.

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|Howard Stateman, Hewlett-Packard Response Center, Mountain View, CA |
|howeird@hpwrce.HP.COM      or     hplabs!hpwrce!howeird             |
|Disclaimer: I couldn't possibly speak for HP. I know too much.      |
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