[Foundation-l] [Ticket#: 126217-FW] Emily Dickinson poems

Fri May 27 14:45:32 UTC 2005

Very good letter, but please Ray, don't end it the way you do :)

It is kind of provocative, don't you think so ?

Don't you folks feel like we're getting more and more stuff like this  
these days ?

Le 27 mai 05 à 05:06, Ray Saintonge a écrit :

> Dear Mr. Tanter:
>    You may be pleased to know that Emily Dickinson died in 1886.   
> What determines the copyright on a work of literature is the date  
> of original publication.  The fact that Harvard University  
> republished some of her poems in 1955 would not give them any  
> copyrights in the poems themselves unless perhaps they included  
> poems that had not been previously published such as in the 1924  
> edition of her complete works published by Little, Brown and Co.
>
>    We note too that Harvard would have copyrights to any prefaces,  
> introductions, indexes, and editorial notes that may have  
> accompanied their edition.  We sincerely hope that you have not  
> found such materials in our files.  We also sincerely hope that our  
> presentation does not infringe on the arrangement and selection  
> process which Harvard undertook, although I would think that the  
> term "complete" attached to the 1924 edition would be self- 
> explanatory.
>
>    I also trust that you have also reviewed the files of the  
> Copyright Office of the Library of Congress to verify that whatever  
> copyrights Harvard may have had were properly renewed in or about  
> 1983.
>
>    I am not personally an Emily Dickinson scholar, nor was I a  
> party to the posting of these poems.  That certainly puts me at a  
> disadvantage in the face of someone such as you, whose scholarship  
> is evidently more familiar with that corpus of works.  That being  
> said, we look forward to your response identifying precisely which  
> poems are identical copies of the Harvard poems without being  
> identical to those found in any earlier edition.  We would be glad  
> to make any adjustment to ensure that our version of the poems  
> conforms to the earlier version.
>    Should this response not be satisfactory, and you believe that  
> the material should be the subject of a take down order, please  
> note that such an order requires that you indicate a statement of  
> your legal standing in this matter in relation to either Miss  
> Dickinson or Harvard University.
>
>    Yours very truly,
>    Ray Saintonge
>    a Wikisource editor
>
> Angela wrote:
>
>
>> I'm forwarding this to Foundation-l since Wikisource has no list of
>> its own yet. Is anyone able to help with this issue or provide
>> comments on it please?
>>
>> Angela
>>
>> ---- Forwarded message from tanter <tanter at tarleton.edu> ----
>>
>> Date: From: tanter
>> To: board
>> Cc: Reply-To: Subject: [Ticket#: 126217-FW] Emily Dickinson poems
>>
>>> Hello.  On your site, you have posted poems by Emily Dickinson at  
>>> this
>>> URL:
>>> http://wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Emily_Dickinson.  You need to  
>>> be aware
>>> that these poems are NOT in the public domain.  Harvard  
>>> University owns the copyright to all of Emily Dickinson's poems  
>>> published in the 1955 and
>>> later editions of her poetry.  The editions from the 1890s are  
>>> public domain
>>> but the ones you seem to have posted are from the Harvard  
>>> edition. I haven't had
>>> time to go through them all, but I suggest you have an editor  
>>> review this
>>> because you may be violating copyright.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
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