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publishing copyright

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  • publishing copyright

    Hello,

    I am dealing with a typesetter who has many titles of books on file digitally that were done for other publishers. If I wanted to use some of the files he has, he tells me he has copyright on the files and the only part being copyright to the publisher is the title page and prelims. However, my concern is that if a publisher is to re-key a book making slight changes and/or corrections to the original text, does copyright then belong to them?

    The books/titles in question are classic editions/titles which are out of copyright.
    Tags: publishing

  • #2
    Re: publishing copyright

    Sorry for the late reply but I somehow missed this!
    Right, so the actual works themselves are out of copyright and in the public domain. It sounds like someone such as Ladybird or readers digest have printed their own collection. In this case you can, as your friend said, do what you like with the actual manuscript but you may not reuse the cover or the preliminary / editorial pages if they are unique to the reissuing /publishing house. If the publisher wishes to alter the text of the manuscript in any way and re issue copy then that is up to them. I would imagine they would expect the typesetter to keep copies of the full publication on digital file for future use in the same way printers used to keep artwork stereos or printing plates. If he copies the body of the text and passes it on to you for your own use then although the publishing house might be miffed he has copied and passed on something they supplied it is not a copyright issue. Part of his contract may be that he does not do this but that is a different legal issue.

    An optimist is someone who falls off the Empire State Building, and after 50 floors says, 'So far so good'!
    ~ Anonymous

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: publishing copyright

      Your question breaks down into three parts.

      1. Copyright should be respected as a cumulative body of rights - the number of rights owners accumulates as an original work is progressively republished. By 'cumulative', I mean that the original creator's rights AND a publisher's rights both apply to a published work. (In practice, a publisher will often ask the creator to assign their own rights over to them, so only one person or body is managing the rights). As a work is progressively re-recorded, re-enacted, re-formatted and re-published, then each of these processes will include their own original creative element. Some films which are a 'compilation' of several performances are unbroadcastable due to the difficulty in contacting the very large number of rights holders.

      2. Typesetting.
      Originally posted by delbook View Post
      I am dealing with a typesetter who has many titles of books on file digitally that were done for other publishers. If I wanted to use some of the files he has, he tells me he has copyright on the files . . . . .
      I will accept that typesetting, as a skilled visual art, is captured by meaning of the Copyright Designs and Patent Act and its case law. Consequently, the rights holder of the visual typesetting would have to consent to, or negotiate terms of, any use by yourself.
      But it seems to me that you are referring to two things at once here:-
      - the electronic files of the raw, digitised text of the original work, represented by any mechanical or electronic means, without any new and creative element, which are 'not significantly different from the original' ;
      - the creatively typeset work of a person who has contributed their own significant features to their product (which happens to be availble on electronic files), and has produced a work which is 'significantly different from the original'.

      Which do you really want the use of?
      I'll guess that you have already asked them for the raw, unformatted text files which they scanned or typed, and that they have declined to offer them to you (as they have no rights to claim and no opportunity to earn any revenue, while you would have the opportunity to benefit from their efforts).

      3. When does creativity occur?
      Originally posted by delbook View Post
      . . . however, my concern is that if a publisher is to re-key a book making slight changes and/or corrections to the original text, does copyright then belong to them?
      A creative treatment of an existing work must be 'significantly different' to the original work from which it was derived. Scanning the printed original, creating raw text files from it, or producing visual copies is all work, but it is not adding anything 'significantly different'. People (publishers) often deliberately add minor errors in order to identify unauthorised copies - but their deliberately introduced errors do not create a new 'creative work', what they do provide is a 'watermark' which might assist them in enforcing the existing copyright by simplifying the detection of unauthorised copies.

      But what I suspect you might really be wanting to know isn't what you've asked!
      I suspect that you don't really want that person's 'artistic' input in typesetting and that all you really want is the raw text which you can then use with impunity on your own computer to produce something yourself. Perhaps you have asked them for the raw text, and have been refused, or perhaps you haven't asked. Either way, if the typesetter is unwilling to give you the raw text files, then there are plenty people who will scan original documents and electroncally generate a test file of the original for you. I've seen prices as low as 1p per page. Do you have the originals in some form?
      If I am correct in my assumption, then I can reassure you that extracting the original author's written work, whose rights have now expired, from a publication whose rights have expired, into a new computer file will not involve your 'Typesetter', and will not incur any breach of a current right, and will only cost you whatever mechanical scanning and 'optical character recognition' costs are incurred in the task.

      I hope this helps.
      DX
      Last edited by DXNewcastle; 9th May 2015, 21:45:PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: publishing copyright


        QUOTE=DXNewcastle;542694]Your question breaks down into three parts.

        1. Copyright should be respected as a cumulative body of rights - the number of rights owners accumulates as an original work is progressively republished. By 'cumulative', I mean that the original creator's rights AND a publisher's rights both apply to a published work. (In practice, a publisher will often ask the creator to assign their own rights over to them, so only one person or body is managing the rights). As a work is progressively re-recorded, re-enacted, re-formatted and re-published, then each of these processes will include their own original creative element. Some films which are a 'compilation' of several performances are unbroadcastable due to the difficulty in contacting the very large number of rights holders.

        2. Typesetting.I will accept that typesetting, as a skilled visual art, is captured by meaning of the Copyright Designs and Patent Act and its case law. Consequently, the rights holder of the visual typesetting would have to consent to, or negotiate terms of, any use by yourself.
        But it seems to me that you are referring to two things at once here:-
        - the electronic files of the raw, digitised text of the original work, represented by any mechanical or electronic means, without any new and creative element, which are 'not significantly different from the original' ;
        - the creatively typeset work of a person who has contributed their own significant features to their product (which happens to be availble on electronic files), and has produced a work which is 'significantly different from the original'.

        Which do you really want the use of?
        I'll guess that you have already asked them for the raw, unformatted text files which they scanned or typed, and that they have declined to offer them to you (as they have no rights to claim and no opportunity to earn any revenue, while you would have the opportunity to benefit from their efforts).

        3. When does creativity occur?A creative treatment of an existing work must be 'significantly different' to the original work from which it was derived. Scanning the printed original, creating raw text files from it, or producing visual copies is all work, but it is not adding anything 'significantly different'. People (publishers) often deliberately add minor errors in order to identify unauthorised copies - but their deliberately introduced errors do not create a new 'creative work', what they do provide is a 'watermark' which might assist them in enforcing the existing copyright by simplifying the detection of unauthorised copies.

        But what I suspect you might really be wanting to know isn't what you've asked!
        I suspect that you don't really want that person's 'artistic' input in typesetting and that all you really want is the raw text which you can then use with impunity on your own computer to produce something yourself. Perhaps you have asked them for the raw text, and have been refused, or perhaps you haven't asked. Either way, if the typesetter is unwilling to give you the raw text files, then there are plenty people who will scan original documents and electroncally generate a test file of the original for you. I've seen prices as low as 1p per page. Do you have the originals in some form?
        If I am correct in my assumption, then I can reassure you that extracting the original author's written work, whose rights have now expired, from a publication whose rights have expired, into a new computer file will not involve your 'Typesetter', and will not incur any breach of a current right, and will only cost you whatever mechanical scanning and 'optical character recognition' costs are incurred in the task.

        I hope this helps.
        DX[/QUOTE]


        hi DX,
        Many thanks for your reply. That seems to make sense.
        To be clear about my position:. The typesetter will be resetting the electronic files he has to my specification
        ( e.g.font,design,layout)
        the question is whether the electronic files he will work from (originally produced by him for another publisher)are in any way copyright to the publisher.

        Many Thanks

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: publishing copyright

          Hi,
          many thanks for replying.
          i would imagine you are right regarding a contract with a publisher. If I do, as planned, get the text designed and laid out to my spec them I would make sure the design of the pages are in some way protected and not to be re used.
          hence my original question!

          thank you

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: publishing copyright

            If you are simply adding your spin to work that is out of copyright /in the public domain then fire away. Sorry, got a bit confused earlier. There is no need to stick the good old fashioned © or anything so long as you can prove the altered manuscript is your own work –in the same way a screen writer’s version of, for example, a Jane Austin book is his own work and he owns the copyright; not of course for the original manuscript but for the altered work. Another person can write their own version of the original so long as they do not plagiarize your adaptation.

            An optimist is someone who falls off the Empire State Building, and after 50 floors says, 'So far so good'!
            ~ Anonymous

            Comment

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