>>> [log in to unmask] 08/20/03 10:54AM >>>
        I distincly remember Kenneth Crewes saying that unpublished
documents are owned by, well, whoever owns them.

This is true, in the same sense that published material is owned by
whoever owns them.  I have shelves full of books that I own--I don't
have copyright on any of them.

>>>That they may be otherwise (by date) in the public domain is
irrelevant because the concept of public domain only applies to
published material.

Perhaps "public domain" is a term defined by U.S. copyright law (I know
it isn't in the Canadian Copyright Act), but it's my understanding from
general usage that "public domain" refers to anything no longer
protected by copyright.  In Canada, the term of copyright is generally
the remainder of the calendar year in which the author dies, plus an
additional 50 years.  I believe the U.S. has a similar limit on
copyright, except that it is generally life+70 years protection.
Whether the work was published or not is immaterial--copyright exists as
soon as the work is created, and expires once the term of copyright is
up.  Now, the owner of the documents still has property rights over the
documents, and can control access to them; but if the owner is a museum
or archives, what's the rationale for collecting the material if public
access and use is going to be denied?

------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
Medicine Hat, AB   T1A 5E6
(403) 502-8587

>>> By the way, he also said that if you publish a transcription of a
document you then own the copyright on that material, both the
published
on original versions. He said that, not I.

Oooouuuhhh...since this is the opinion of someone (presumably) not on
the list, I'll try not to say too much about that...but I've never heard
of being able to "assume" copyright of an original work this way.  A
copyright holder can assign copyright to someone else, and once
copyright has expired the work can be used by anybody, but once
copyright has expired, it's gone, and can't be re-instated.

At least, again, this is my understanding of Canadian copyright law.  I
know there are differences between ours and the American laws, but I
didn't think the differences were of THAT magnitude!

Cheers,




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