Book People Archive

RE: Copyright extension


I have been threatened with a dozen lawsuits of this nature,
I give them my copyright research as per US copyright law,
and our legal beagles tell me to stand fast, which I have.

This has been going on for years. . .and they always back down.

The English and the Germans seem to do this the most.


Thanks!

So nice to hear from you!


Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
"Ask Dr. Internet"
Executive Director
Internet User ~#100


On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Joseph Pietro Riolo wrote:

> 
> 
> On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Lion Kimbro <lion@[redacted]> wrote:
> >   Eh? Pardon my rudeness, but this just sounds like nonsense and
> >   anti-PD propaganda.
> 
> There is nothing anti-PD in my message.
> 
> >   I'm not a lawyer, but I've been paying attention.
> >   If some country claims unilateral rights to all works ever written,
> >   forever and ever, and you put up a page that violates their "copyright",
> >   the U.S. will not hand you over, and lend jurisdiction to that other
> >   country.
> 
> That is not what I said.  Here is what Attorney Stephen Fishman said
> on page 20 in Chapter 17 in his book _The Public Domain_:
> 
>        In any event, it is possible that you could be sued
>      in a foreign country for violating that country's
>      copyright laws.  It might even be possible for you
>      to be sued in the United States for violating the
>      copyright laws of a foreign country.  Consider the
>      following fictional example:
> 
>           EXAMPLE: Jim has his own website on
>           which he places copies of public domain
>           books.  Jim lives in California, his Web
>           server is in California and his Internet
>           access provider is in California.  Jim
>           scans the short story collection _Dubliners_
>           by James Joyce and places it on his website.
>           _Dubliners_ is in the public domain in the
>           U.S. because the copyright expired -- it was
>           published in 1914 and the U.S. copyright for
>           all works published before 1923 lasted a
>           maximum of 75 years.  However, _Dubliners_
>           is not in the public domain in the United
>           Kingdom, where copyrights last for the life
>           of the author plus 70 years (Joyce died in
>           1941).  People who live in the United Kingdom
>           can easily access Jim's website and download
>           a copy of _Dubliners_.  Joyce's heirs sue
>           Jim for copyright infringement in a British
>           court.
> 
> Note the words "possible" and "fictional".  The above has not happened
> but the possibility is still there.  For a better understanding, buy
> a copy of the book or borrow a copy from your library and read the whole
> section F in the same chapter.
> 
> None of the above is legal advice (with apology to Jonathan Bartlett).
> 
> Joseph Pietro Riolo
> <riolo@[redacted]>