Digital Copyright Question

Subject: Digital Copyright Question
From: "Harry Spier" <harryspier@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 19:43:20 -0500
Dear list members,

A non-profit academic institute incorporated in the U.S.A. wishes to publish on the internet facsimile copies of a series of entire books published in India between 1911 and 1960. I have been asked to find out what copyright permissions need to be obtained to do this.

The information I know is as follows:

1) The books were published in India between 1911 and 1960 without any copyright notice on them.

2) The books are "printed editions" of manuscripts 700 to 1000 years old. Some of the authors of the manuscripts are known and some are not. But the printed editions all have scholarly "editors" of Indian nationality who editted the manuscript or collated different manuscripts to produce the "printed edition" and added other material such as prefaces, scholarly notes etc. Some of these editors have been dead for over 75 years, some for over 50 years, and a very few still are alive.

3) In some cases the facsimile digital images of the books were created directly from the old printed editions but in some cases the facsimile digital images were made from microfilm copies owned by another academic institute. These microfilm images were made about 20 years ago and have a copyright notice attached by the producer of the microfilm.

If any of the list members could answer the following I would greatly appreciate it.

1) What copyright permissions does the academic institute need to obtain to publish these books on the web.

2) Do the newly created digital images of the books have copyright rights.

Many thanks,


Harry Spier 371 Brickman Rd. Hurleyville, New York USA 12747




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