Quote:
Originally Posted by MrTeatime
Actually, I have a query re: digitization: when e.g. Hemingway becomes public domain, could I scan and OCR any published edition of his works, or do the publishers tack on their own copyright claim at the time of publication? i.e. could I just buy and scan this edition (from 1998), or are there complications that mean that I would I have to dig up an edition published in Hemingway's lifetime?
Edit:
I'm assuming annotations etc are copyright the publisher/ editors, but what about emendations, etc? Ulysses, for example, has several variants floating around, some of which were put together (from Joyce's original manuscripts) in the 1960s. |
The copyright is for the version published at the time. Republishing it does not extend the copyright. If additional (or revised matter) is added, that sets a new copyright to that material, but is does not change the copyright for the original material.
Let me give a US example. James Branch Cabell wrote a book called Lines Of Love in 1907. He then rewrote is in 1922. He then re-rewrote in it in 1928 as part of his Biography of Manuel Storisende edition. The US copyright starts in Jan 1, 1923. So the 1907 variant is public domain in the US, as well as the 1922 variant, but the 1928 variant is under copyright. If he had not changed the material, but just added a forward, only the forward would have been under copyright for the 1928 version.
Inter-government copyright law is not simple, and I won't even attempt it.