<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.5.7652.24">
<TITLE> InfoD-Cafe: ReadHowYouWant.com paperback editions</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<!-- Converted from text/plain format -->
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Sorry if this shows up twice. Since it hasn't shown up in almost three hours I'm guessing it may have been lost.<BR>
<BR>
Gunnar<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: Swanson, Gunnar<BR>
Sent: Sun 1/13/2008 2:41 PM<BR>
To: Discussions about information design<BR>
Subject: RE: InfoD-Cafe: ReadHowYouWant.com paperback editions<BR>
<BR>
On 13/01/2008, Deborah Taylor-Pearce <dtp@she-philosopher.com> wrote:<BR>
> But surely it's not OK to copyright what is "already free<BR>
> culture"?<BR>
<BR>
I'll start with my standard disclaimer: Anyone who takes legal advice from a graphic designer is an idiot. Also, I know a lot more about US copyright law than other countries' so what I say applies only to US copyright.<BR>
<BR>
The "what can you copyright?" question seems to represent a confusion. You can't copyright anything. You can register a copyright. You can place a copyright notice on something. Copyright, however, is automatic. As soon as you make a creative work, its author automatically holds the copyright. ("Author" here is a legal term. It is normally the creator of the work but if done as part of employment, the employer is the legal author.)<BR>
<BR>
A creative work can be based on a previous creative work. Such derivative works make things a bit more complex. I hold the copyright to this email. If you expand on it using my work, you have a copyright on your expansion but any exercise of that copyright is likely to be contingent on my similar exercise of my original copyright. (Your derivative work does not affect my original copyright on my original work.) If instead you base a derivative work on something that is in public domain, your copyright is not contingent on another copyright but it only covers new creative work.<BR>
<BR>
If I took a Shakespeare play and re-titled it "Hamlet, Prince of a Danish" and inserted the line "I feel like the hole in a donut and am looking fairly pastry" after "To be or not to be" then my copyright would cover any version of the play that included that line but would not cover any version that did not contain the line. Presumably one could copy my version minus my original creative work (thus restoring the original) without infringing on my copyright.<BR>
<BR>
On the other hand, if I took the Shakespeare original and printed it in red ink to match the Danish flag, I doubt I could get a court to agree that this was an original creative work on my part, thus enjoining you from printing the play in red. I certainly could not get a court to agree that red ink was an original creative work on my part, thus enjoining anyone from using red ink to print anything. In no case have I gained copyright ownership over Will's play.<BR>
<BR>
Gunnar<BR>
----------<BR>
Gunnar Swanson Design Office<BR>
1901 East 6th Street<BR>
Greenville, North Carolina 27858<BR>
USA<BR>
<BR>
gunnar@gunnarswanson.com<BR>
+1 252 258 7006<BR>
<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.gunnarswanson.com">http://www.gunnarswanson.com</A><BR>
<BR>
at East Carolina University:<BR>
swansong@ecu.edu<BR>
+1 252 328 2839<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT>
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>