(erielack) Re: Copyright

["Stephen Titchenal" <Stephen_@_titchenal.com>]

I am not a lawyer, but have done some research on the U.S. law.

Copyright can be a very tricky subject, especially for materials that have 
never been published.

Unless it was a work for hire, the creator owns the copyright until they 
transfer the copyright to someone else (separate from the actual object). In 
order to initiate court actions against infringers, the copyright should be 
registered by the copyright owner with the Library of Congress. Before 1989 
there was a requirement to include a copyright notice on materials 
distributed to the public (i.e. published) -- that is no longer a 
requirement.

If a work was published before 1923 it is generally in the public domain and 
can be reproduced for any purpose.

Until recently unpublished works, even hundreds of years old were still 
under a common law copyright. Now, there is a limited copyright, but you can 
only be sure of works created before 1886 and never published.  Note that 
publication could have occurred as late as 2003 to extend the copyright of 
older unpublished works.

There is a "fair use" exemption for certain uses of copyrighted works, but 
that generally would not include anything that would impact the copyright 
owner's sales of their work.

A very good explanation of copyright related to digitization is avalable at
http://www.llrx.com/features/digitization.htm

Stephen Titchenal
Stephen_@_Titchenal.com
www.titchenal.com
www.railsandtrails.com 


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