Subject
VN and Copyright
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE: NABOKV-L has had a recent flurry of exchanges about
access to various archives with VN holdings and about usage and
copyright of both unpublished and published materials. This is a murky
area to many scholars. I would like to particularly thank three people
who have shared their expertise in this area: Alice Birney, Michael
Juliar, and David Slavitt. And Andrey Ustinov whose plaint gave rise to
the discussion. Below, Michael Juliar, Nabokov's bibliographer, provides
some very useful information that all Nabokovians should print and file
away for future consultation. In a following posting Alice Birney of the
Library of Congress spells out the situation for the Nabokov archive at
the LC. DBJ
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 14:28:22 EDT
From: Michael Juliar <mlj@mink.mt.att.com>
To: nabokv-l@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: Copyright, Permission, and the Eastern Bloc
Andrey Ustinov, in his reply (31 Mar) to my follow-up (30
Mar) of a note from John Lavagnino (30 Mar) about a NYC
production of King, Queen, Knave, ignores elements of what
I said, misinterprets other aspects of it, has completely
wrong ideas about the moral and legal aspects of
copyright, and but does ask a valid question.
First of all, I never said or implied that Sweden is an
Eastern Bloc country. I did say that an opera of Lolita,
was performed there. As I had posted a few weeks ago, the
Russian national composer/librettist did not originally
seek the appropriate rights.
Second, John Lavagnino, to whom I was responding, had said
in a recent posting that the KQKn NYC production was part
of the "Eastern European Theater Festival...the work of the
Moscow State Theater, directed by Ekaterina Elanskaya." If
that isn't a production by former or current Russian
citizens, then maybe it was all done by Elvis.
Third, the fact that a publishing house doesn't exist
anymore doesn't mean that the publishing rights to KQKn are
in the public domain. The publishing house may have
acquired the copyright originally, then reassigned it to
VN. Or when the house folded, the rights reverted to VN.
However it happened, KQKn and all other VN works are fully
protected in all territories with one peculiar exception.
That has to do with Russia. Since I am not a copyright
lawyer, I won't deign to say more on this subject. You had
better speak to a lawyer. You have the obligation, moral
and legal, to find out what is going on. Or ask the VN
literary agent.
She is very easy to find (my fourth point). Go to any of
VN's current publishers and ask them who the agent is.
They'll all tell you: Smith/Skolnik Literary Management, 23
East 10th St., #712, New York, NY 10003, 212-995-9140,
(fax, 212-995-9165)
My experience with Nikki Smith and her work for Dmitri
Nabokov who, of course, has the final say on any
permissions, is that she is very open, accommodating, and
responsive with scholars. Money appears to be important
mainly when the reproduction rights are for commerical
purposes. Privacy is important in all cases.
Fifth, another legal point. If person A writes a letter
and mails it to person B, person A may not "own" the
physical letter anymore, but he certainly doesn't lose his
copyright on it. Person A has the right to control all
reproductions of it.
Please understand the rights and obligations of a scholar.
I repeat what I said before: "Many former Eastern Bloc
citizens, and Russians in particular, even though they have
donned capitalistic cloaks, still don't seem to know or
care about authors rights." I amend that only by saying
that the history of copyright in the former Soviet Union is
not the same as in the "West". It is certainly this
discrepancy that leads people emerging from that
communistic culture to make many false assumptions about
the legal status of VN works.
- Michael Juliar
access to various archives with VN holdings and about usage and
copyright of both unpublished and published materials. This is a murky
area to many scholars. I would like to particularly thank three people
who have shared their expertise in this area: Alice Birney, Michael
Juliar, and David Slavitt. And Andrey Ustinov whose plaint gave rise to
the discussion. Below, Michael Juliar, Nabokov's bibliographer, provides
some very useful information that all Nabokovians should print and file
away for future consultation. In a following posting Alice Birney of the
Library of Congress spells out the situation for the Nabokov archive at
the LC. DBJ
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 14:28:22 EDT
From: Michael Juliar <mlj@mink.mt.att.com>
To: nabokv-l@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: Copyright, Permission, and the Eastern Bloc
Andrey Ustinov, in his reply (31 Mar) to my follow-up (30
Mar) of a note from John Lavagnino (30 Mar) about a NYC
production of King, Queen, Knave, ignores elements of what
I said, misinterprets other aspects of it, has completely
wrong ideas about the moral and legal aspects of
copyright, and but does ask a valid question.
First of all, I never said or implied that Sweden is an
Eastern Bloc country. I did say that an opera of Lolita,
was performed there. As I had posted a few weeks ago, the
Russian national composer/librettist did not originally
seek the appropriate rights.
Second, John Lavagnino, to whom I was responding, had said
in a recent posting that the KQKn NYC production was part
of the "Eastern European Theater Festival...the work of the
Moscow State Theater, directed by Ekaterina Elanskaya." If
that isn't a production by former or current Russian
citizens, then maybe it was all done by Elvis.
Third, the fact that a publishing house doesn't exist
anymore doesn't mean that the publishing rights to KQKn are
in the public domain. The publishing house may have
acquired the copyright originally, then reassigned it to
VN. Or when the house folded, the rights reverted to VN.
However it happened, KQKn and all other VN works are fully
protected in all territories with one peculiar exception.
That has to do with Russia. Since I am not a copyright
lawyer, I won't deign to say more on this subject. You had
better speak to a lawyer. You have the obligation, moral
and legal, to find out what is going on. Or ask the VN
literary agent.
She is very easy to find (my fourth point). Go to any of
VN's current publishers and ask them who the agent is.
They'll all tell you: Smith/Skolnik Literary Management, 23
East 10th St., #712, New York, NY 10003, 212-995-9140,
(fax, 212-995-9165)
My experience with Nikki Smith and her work for Dmitri
Nabokov who, of course, has the final say on any
permissions, is that she is very open, accommodating, and
responsive with scholars. Money appears to be important
mainly when the reproduction rights are for commerical
purposes. Privacy is important in all cases.
Fifth, another legal point. If person A writes a letter
and mails it to person B, person A may not "own" the
physical letter anymore, but he certainly doesn't lose his
copyright on it. Person A has the right to control all
reproductions of it.
Please understand the rights and obligations of a scholar.
I repeat what I said before: "Many former Eastern Bloc
citizens, and Russians in particular, even though they have
donned capitalistic cloaks, still don't seem to know or
care about authors rights." I amend that only by saying
that the history of copyright in the former Soviet Union is
not the same as in the "West". It is certainly this
discrepancy that leads people emerging from that
communistic culture to make many false assumptions about
the legal status of VN works.
- Michael Juliar