Quote:
Originally Posted by Psymon
Clearly you don't understand the law, then. From what you're saying, everything that countless scholars have been working on for many decades now with regard to coming up with definitive, authoritative versions of the writings of Henry David Thoreau are still in the public domain.
And yet, nobody is saying that. Publishers don't say that, Thoreau scholars don't say that, nobody at all says that. Anyone interested in Thoreau's writings understands that those Princeton scholars retain copyright for their efforts.
|
The books have a copyright because they don't just contain Thoreau's text. They contain introductory essays, footnotes, etc. I'm afraid that, like it or not, the actual text that Mr Thoreau wrote is in the public domain, and anyone can perfectly legally copy the text (but not the introduction, footnotes, etc) from such a book and do whatever they wish to with it. That really is the way that copyright works. Scholarly effort does not automatically grant copyright.