[WikiEN-l] Image copyright question: NYT images pre 1922 that are claimed to be copyrighted

Sun Sep 11 17:16:10 UTC 2005

Personally, I interpret the ProQuest, JSTOR, Lexis Nexis, and similar
databases which contain lots of material published pre-1923 (or
otherwise public domain, i.e. the text of U.S. statutes) in two ways:

1. The material probably isn't copyrighted. Though Bridgeman v. Corel
was just about 2-D artwork, I don't see why the same rationality
wouldn't apply here. Copyright, in the U.S. anyway, is not a reward
for putting in effort, it is a pact in exchange for creative activity.
Scanning a 2-D newspaper page is not a creative activity. If the
materials are in the public domain, simple reproduction of them
(however costly) does not create a proprietary copyright (see the
Westlaw cases as well, which I think are mentioned in the [[Westlaw]]
article).

2. While you're probably not violating intellectual property law in
taking public domain images from their database, you probably are
violating their terms of service, which is probably grounds to block
you from their database or revoke your library privileges or something
that. So do it at your own risk. I doubt they would care very much
unless you were systematically removing articles from them and
creating your own service.

(Just as an aside, JSTOR is a great source for hi-res, public domain
images of scientists and science experiment results. I was able to get
a huge cache of pictures of and relating to Einstein in this way,
which are now on Commons. ProQuest's image quality is very bad since
they scanned them in from microfilm, which makes them worse than a
photocopy of a photocopy.)

Also, re: Sonny Bono: as I understand it (someone correct me if I'm
wrong), it didn't put anything which WAS in the public domain into the
private domain, it just made it so that things which were SUPPOSED to
enter into the public domain did NOT. Which is very sad, but at least
it doesn't open anyone up for litigation.

FF

On 9/11/05, Daniel P. B. Smith <dpbsmith at verizon.net> wrote:
> I frequently make use of an online database, made available to me at
> no cost by my local public library system, which contains not merely
> the full text but the actual page images of The New York Times back
> to 1857.
> 
> Obviously there's no problem with short quotes from the text, but
> what about images prior to 1923?
> 
> EVERY piece of material downloaded from this database, back to 1857,
> contains a notice like this:
> 
> "Display Ad 7--No Title. New York Times (1857-Current file); Aug 30,
> 1888; [database name] Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851
> - 2001) pg. 8. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
> Further reproduction prohibited without permission."
> 
> I'd syllogize that a) everything published before 1923 is in the
> public domain, and b) everything that appears in The New York Times
> has been publisheded, ergo c) this is in the public domain, and that
> the notice is just boilerplate, presumably put on everything because
> it is easier and less risky to put it on everything than to attempt
> to determine which things are under copyright (after all, a few more
> Sonny Bono laws and this may BE copyrighted again), and that I can
> safely ignore it, that I use the image freely, and that no permission
> is required.
> 
> Comments?
> 
> --
> Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net
> "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
> Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
> Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
> 
> 
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