By my understanding of Canadian copyright law, the edited and annotated
transcriptions would be considered a new creation, and copyright would
be held by the creator.  For example, if you had a researcher come to
your institution, make copies of original correspondence, then edited
and annotated them as you described and published them, copyright in the
work would lie with the researcher, not your institution.  That's one of
the reasons copyright is not indefinite; so that once a work enters
public domain, it can be used to inspire new creations based on the work
(such as Disney did with the works of the Brothers Grimm).

Canadian copyright law is currently under review; one of the chief
criticisms the proposed amendments is that it would delay entry into
public domain the personal papers of a number of significant Canadians
from the early part of the 20th C.--an era that one prominent Canadian
historian specializes in--restricting their use in new publications.

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

>>> [log in to unmask] 08/19/03 03:40PM >>>
While the subject is still fresh in our minds, can anyone offer advice
on
how exactly the law applies to written material?  I'm speaking of
handwritten historical documents, clearly in the public domain
timewise, but
owned by a particular organization, institution, or site.  When
transcribed,
edited, and annotated (which involves, clearly, a great deal of
supplemental
research, and the most basic cleaning-up, such as adding punctuation),
does
ownership still reside with the owner of the physical original?

Martha David


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