Comments on: Laying Claim to the Public Domain http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/ free software, free culture, free association Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:25:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: Scott Carpenter http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-3073 Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:05:08 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-3073 Hi, jp. Thanks for commenting. It was actually Scholastic overreaching on the copyright statement. Dover just came up later in comments. But point taken. Hi, jp. Thanks for commenting. It was actually Scholastic overreaching on the copyright statement. Dover just came up later in comments. But point taken.

]]> by: justaposter http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-3072 Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:22:06 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-3072 It's pretty cut and dried about copyright and the public domain. Only original creative content is eligible for copyright. If Dover added commentary or editorial material that part would be copyrightable. Layout, fonts, pagination, etc do not qualify for copyright. Therefore their public domain materials do not qualify for copyright status. One only needs to remove any new copyrightable material from their books and it is pure public domain. Case closed. Let em take you to court and lose. It’s pretty cut and dried about copyright and the public domain. Only original creative content is eligible for copyright. If Dover added commentary or editorial material that part would be copyrightable. Layout, fonts, pagination, etc do not qualify for copyright. Therefore their public domain materials do not qualify for copyright status. One only needs to remove any new copyrightable material from their books and it is pure public domain. Case closed. Let em take you to court and lose.

]]> by: Geoff http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-806 Sun, 31 Dec 2006 18:12:08 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-806 Unfortunately, I haven't had much time lately for DP either, but I do a page or two when I can, which is what's great about it... Even if most people only do a page or two, we get a lot done! :-) I was specifically referring to the majority of Dover's music score books, but the thrift editions are great, too. I've got an H.G. Wells set, and a Shakespeare set, not to mention the numerous others scattered about. Happy New Year! Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time lately for DP either, but I do a page or two when I can, which is what’s great about it… Even if most people only do a page or two, we get a lot done! :-)

I was specifically referring to the majority of Dover’s music score books, but the thrift editions are great, too. I’ve got an H.G. Wells set, and a Shakespeare set, not to mention the numerous others scattered about.

Happy New Year!

]]> by: Scott Carpenter http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-794 Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:23:45 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-794 Hi, Geoff. I gave the distributed proofreading a try this past year and enjoyed it, although I only did a few pages. It felt good to contribute to a great project like Gutenberg. I should make more time for it Are you referring to those Dover "thrift" publications? I've bought several of them recently: Emerson, Thoreau, children's books and miscellaneous fiction. What a great deal. I also have several of them on hold at Amazon to get me over the $25 free shipping line when necessary. (Thanks for the pointers to the music sites -- I bookmarked them in del.icio.us. I'm unfortunately not very musically inclined, but I like to be aware of free culture projects.) Hi, Geoff. I gave the distributed proofreading a try this past year and enjoyed it, although I only did a few pages. It felt good to contribute to a great project like Gutenberg. I should make more time for it

Are you referring to those Dover “thrift” publications? I’ve bought several of them recently: Emerson, Thoreau, children’s books and miscellaneous fiction. What a great deal. I also have several of them on hold at Amazon to get me over the $25 free shipping line when necessary.

(Thanks for the pointers to the music sites — I bookmarked them in del.icio.us. I’m unfortunately not very musically inclined, but I like to be aware of free culture projects.)

]]> by: Geoff http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-774 Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:17:28 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-774 Yes, I agree with you completely, which is why I'm involved with several sites to preserve the public domain (Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders ( http://pgdp.net/ ), Project Mutopia ( http://mutopiaproject.org/ ) and the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP, http://imslp.org/ )), and do some transcription on my own, which I release under a CC-BY-SA license, so that if someone wants to lock the work I've done back up, they can't, legally, and otherwise they have to let people know where they got it. It's imperfect, I know, but I think it's the best solution for now. Anyway, I always hate it when I come across a work that's clearly in the public domain that claims it's not. Now, IANAL, but I think that (unfortunately) re-engraving a work would qualify it for renewed copyright, but mere reprinting does not, which is why Dover Publications is such a great resource. Yes, I agree with you completely, which is why I’m involved with several sites to preserve the public domain (Project Gutenberg’s Distributed Proofreaders ( http://pgdp.net/ ), Project Mutopia ( http://mutopiaproject.org/ ) and the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP, http://imslp.org/ )), and do some transcription on my own, which I release under a CC-BY-SA license, so that if someone wants to lock the work I’ve done back up, they can’t, legally, and otherwise they have to let people know where they got it. It’s imperfect, I know, but I think it’s the best solution for now.

Anyway, I always hate it when I come across a work that’s clearly in the public domain that claims it’s not.

Now, IANAL, but I think that (unfortunately) re-engraving a work would qualify it for renewed copyright, but mere reprinting does not, which is why Dover Publications is such a great resource.

]]> by: Scott Carpenter http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-767 Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:30:13 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-767 Hi, Karen. Thanks for visiting and commenting. I think if Scholastic is using public domain text and images that they shouldn't be able to "re-encumber" them, just because they reproduced them in one way or another. I agree that it's best to work with source texts that are in the public domain, but these can be hard to find. Of course with the way copyright works today, if they created a derivative work, they could then lock that new work up for three or four hundred years, or whatever the length of copyright will be after Disney buys a few more congressmen and extensions. But now I'm sounding bitter. (That ever lengthening term is such a huge problem for preserving culture. After a hundred years--or two or three--goes by, much is lost that might have been preserved.) Thanks for the links to your site -- you have a great collection of public domain images. I quickly browsed around and look forward to using some of the images and to checking out your original work. Hi, Karen. Thanks for visiting and commenting. I think if Scholastic is using public domain text and images that they shouldn’t be able to “re-encumber” them, just because they reproduced them in one way or another. I agree that it’s best to work with source texts that are in the public domain, but these can be hard to find.

Of course with the way copyright works today, if they created a derivative work, they could then lock that new work up for three or four hundred years, or whatever the length of copyright will be after Disney buys a few more congressmen and extensions. But now I’m sounding bitter. (That ever lengthening term is such a huge problem for preserving culture. After a hundred years–or two or three–goes by, much is lost that might have been preserved.)

Thanks for the links to your site — you have a great collection of public domain images. I quickly browsed around and look forward to using some of the images and to checking out your original work.

]]> by: Karen http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-765 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:17:13 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-765 Oops. I just realized that you're talking about Scholastic's reproduction of the book. I think what I wrote above still applies. You can't copy or reproduce <em>their</em> book, but if you bought the original you could -- just like Scholastic did. Oops. I just realized that you’re talking about Scholastic’s reproduction of the book. I think what I wrote above still applies. You can’t copy or reproduce their book, but if you bought the original you could — just like Scholastic did.

]]> by: Karen http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-764 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 21:14:54 +0000 http://www.movingtofreedom.org/2006/12/21/laying-claim-to-the-public-domain-mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/#comment-764 Hi, I think the objection Scholastic might have is with you taking the images from their web site and using them without their permission since they have gone through the trouble of reproducing them to put on the web. If you had a copy of the book and scanned and used the images, that would be different because you have a copy of the original work which is in the public domain. There have been court rulings about "slavish reproductions" of public domain art work; the whole thing is very complicated and hard to understand, if you ask me. I have a lot of public domain pictures on my web site (from works prior to 1923) including nursery rhymes that I have scanned from the original source material. You can find them at <a href="http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images" title="Public Domain Images" rel="nofollow">Public Domain Images</a>. Hi,
I think the objection Scholastic might have is with you taking the
images from their web site and using them without their permission since they have gone through the trouble of reproducing them to put on the web. If you had a copy of the book and scanned and used the images, that would be different because you have a copy of the original work which is in the public domain. There have been court rulings about “slavish reproductions” of public domain art work; the whole thing is very complicated and hard to understand, if you ask me. I have a lot of public domain pictures on my web site (from works prior to 1923) including nursery rhymes that I have scanned from the original source material. You can find them at Public Domain Images.

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