[at-l] Off Topic Inquiry - Copyright

[yumitori at montana.com (Ron Martino)]

> I just received some CDs which consist of scanned images of old family
> genealogies that have been put on CD as PDF documents. The genealogies were
> originally written by someone else and published privately in 1850.
> Apparently what the seller has done is scan each page as an image file then
> convert the images to PDF to make them cross platform compatible and put it
> on CD. They did not OCR the work as it is not text searchable. What puzzles
> me is that they then copyrighted the entire work. Can they do that?
> Copyright a 153 year old work by someone else just because they put it on
> CD?

	Doubt it. If so, I've got a few hundred classics I'm going to be
putting on CD-ROM...

-- 

It is our attitude toward free thought and free expression that will
determine our fate. There must be no limit on the range of temperate
discussion, no limits on thought. No subject must be taboo. No censor
must preside at our assemblies. 
	William O. Douglas 

yumitori(AT)montana(DOT)com