[at-l] Off Topic Inquiry - Copyright

[jbryankramer at msn.com (J Bryan Kramer)]

They can copyright the compilation but not the original works. Anything
produced prior to 1923 is in the public domain.

Bryan

"Si vis pacem para bellum"

> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net
> [mailto:at-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net]On Behalf Of Jim Bullard
> Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 10:48
> To: AT List
> Subject: [at-l] Off Topic Inquiry - Copyright
>
>
> There was a discussion a while back about copyright. There seemed to be a
> few on the list with some knowledge of copyright law. This question is for
> them to reply off-list.
>
> 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?
>
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