Book People Archive

Re: Copyright extension

On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, David Kurz <kurz@[redacted]> wrote:
> So, it seems to me that if a work is in the public domain in the US (or 
> elsewhere), we are free to put it on the web. Is that a reasonable opinion?
             
Not a good opinion that I could depend on.

_The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music,
Art & More_ by Attorney Stephen Fishman has a brief but good explanation
on the subject.  It is found under "F. Copyright and the Internet's Global
Dimension" on page 19 to 21 in Chapter 17 "The Internet and the Public
Domain".

Basically, you would be sued by people in foreign countries where the
work that you put on your website is still under copyright.  A good
way to reduce the chance of being sued is to put a disclaimer on your
web saying that your web is intended only for people who are in the
U.S.

If your residence is in the U.S. and you are physically in the
U.S., you are welcome to visit my website at:

     http://www.voicenet.com/~riolo/jpr/index.html

And, take a look at the note near the top of the HTML.  There
is nothing fancy over there and I did not add much to it for
many months.  But, I want to show what you should do if you
plan to place a public domain work on your web.

Will the disclaimer work?  Attorney Stephen Fishman was not sure.

One thing that I think Fishman should mention is not to travel
to countries where works are still under copyright lest you will
be arrested.  This happened to Hershel Shanks, the editor of
_Biblical Archaeology Review_, when he went to Israel and he
was sued by a person, whose name I could not recall.

None of the above is legal advice.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo@[redacted]>