[Foundation-l] Fair Use and Registered Trademarks

Thu Jul 14 20:44:43 UTC 2005

Le 12 juil. 05 à 22:54, Robert Scott Horning a écrit :

> Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
>
>
>> Actually, I don't think you can digitize some public domain work  
>> and  change its title unless you also change its content.
>>
>> At least in France, that would be forbidden by the moral rights   
>> legislation.
>>
>>
>>
> This is likely to be a huge, and perhaps incompatable difference,  
> between American and French law.

No it's not. It's a theoretical difference that only has a very small  
practical impact.

> Changing and modifying public domain works is commonly accepted,  
> and often encouraged under many circumstances.  That appears to be  
> precisely what has happened here with the Gutenberg Encyclopedia.

It is the same thing in France. You can change and modify them, but  
you can't claim them your own. For example you can't take "Treasure  
Island" (PD) and publish it again under the title "Cool Island"  
claiming to be the author of this new work. That is true in France  
and in the US.

>
> From what I see, based on some research I've just done searching  
> various web pages and trying to read court opinons, etc. (IANAL)  
> the use of a trademark is reserved for the company who holds it.   
> In this case we (or at least I am) trying to advertise the project  
> and discuss the project in public forums.  In this situation, I am  
> not legally entitled to describe the project as "Wikisource  
> Encyclopaedia Britianica, 11th Edition", because that implies  
> endorsement from Encyclopaedia Britianica, Inc.

No it does not.

In this case, you are not using the trademark but the title of a PD  
book. Trademark protection is very powerful but it is limited in range.

You can perfectly call it "Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition  
modified by Wikisource". You are not infringing the trademark  
Britannica because you are simply using the title of a PD book.