Subject
MORE COPYRIGHT BITS (fwd)
Date
Body
From: ALICE L BIRNEY <BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV>
Dieter Zimmer's explanation of copyright basics is of course
correct in almost every respect. On this subject, though, there
is always a new wrinkle. This is a minor and rare event, but it
should be noted that authors do have the right to sell or give
their copyright interests in a particular work or works to
individuals or oganizations, and we have some generous authors
who have donated the physical manuscripts to the Library and
"dedicated to the public" their copyright interests in
publications resulting from these manuscripts. Such dedication
effectively puts those works in the public domain. I hasten to
add that none of our Nabokov manuscript rights have been thus
donated.
Alice Birney
American Literautre Manuscript Historian
Manuscript Division
Library of Congress
BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV
Dieter Zimmer's explanation of copyright basics is of course
correct in almost every respect. On this subject, though, there
is always a new wrinkle. This is a minor and rare event, but it
should be noted that authors do have the right to sell or give
their copyright interests in a particular work or works to
individuals or oganizations, and we have some generous authors
who have donated the physical manuscripts to the Library and
"dedicated to the public" their copyright interests in
publications resulting from these manuscripts. Such dedication
effectively puts those works in the public domain. I hasten to
add that none of our Nabokov manuscript rights have been thus
donated.
Alice Birney
American Literautre Manuscript Historian
Manuscript Division
Library of Congress
BIRNEY@MAIL.LOC.GOV