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Subject:Re: PDFs on the Web in "public domain"? From:Johndan Johnson-Eilola <johndan -at- slic -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 12 Nov 2003 04:02:38 -0500
I missed the beginning of this thread, so I apologize in advance if I'm
missing something here. But some quick notes:
1. As Geoff says, even if a PDF claims to be in the public domain, it
might not be. Check around to be sure. I've seen people claim images of
Mickey Mouse were in the public domain. Disney didn't spend all those
millions of dollars lobbying for perpetually increasing copyright
protection in order to see Mickey reproduced freely.
2. If something is actually placed in the "public domain", there are
*no* restrictions on use (at least in terms of copyright). So a
citation isn't legally required. Depending on your users, though, you
may want to include a citation just to avoid confusion about where
something came from and why you're using it freely. (There's some
controversy about whether or not one can actually place materials in
the public domain aside from by letting copyright expire, which might
take 100+ years. Because the author is relinquishing *all* rights, that
counter-argument goes, another person can step in and claim copyright.
If the author does place restrictions on use, then the material isn't
technically "public domain". See the Creative Commons note below.
3. Based on Point 2, Fair Use isn't really an issue, because Fair Use
is a legal exception to standard copyright. In general, though, Fair
Use provides the ability to use copyrighted material for very specific
cases: for limited educational purposes, for criticism of something,
and for parody. (Note that the educational allowances appear to be
rapidly disappearing due to lobbying. Even Stanford's site, mentioned
below, which used to spend a great deal of time discussing educational
exceptions, now concentrates on parody and comment/criticism.)
For more info, see Stanford's Fair Use website:
<http://fairuse.stanford.edu/>. This area changes pretty rapidly
(especially in terms of computer media), getting to be more restrictive
all the time. For more info on how to allow broader types of re-use of
materials you've authored, see the interesting work being done at
Creative Commons <http://creativecommons.org/>.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and I don't even play one on TV. In fact,
the less the legal system knows about me the better.)
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