On Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Anivar Aravind <anivar.aravind(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
The books now released by GoK also include some recent books which
contains collections like complete works of Dr
Ambedkar, essays on
Ambedkar, research works on Kanaka dasa, etc.
Copyright on Ambedkar work is yet another interesting grey area
Read this article
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/annihilation-caste-and-copyright-clai…
<quote>
Since Ambedkar had died intestate, the Maharashtra government was ordered
by the Bombay High Court to take charge of his voluminous writings which
were rotting away for want of a custodian. It set up the clumsily titled
Babasaheb Ambedkar Source Material Publication Committee (BASMP) which
since 1979 has been publishing omnibus volumes titled Dr Babasaheb
Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches. To date, 23 such volumes have been
published in English and these claim the copyright vests with the
secretary, Education Department of Maharashtra. But that it turns out is
not strictly true.
BASMP has been selectively giving permission to those who have sought its
consent to republish Ambedkar’s works—some like Jadhav have not bothered to
do so—to clear the legal issues that would allow them to copyright their
value-added books. It was not till Navayana filed a suit in the Delhi High
Court—its letters to BASMP went unanswered for months as did the their RTI
(right to information) applications— that the truth finally emerged. In
February, BASMP admitted that it did not own the copyright and only had the
lease for it. The copyright, it said, is owned by members of the Ambedkar
family which had given the rights to the state of Maharashtra on payment of
royalty.
Following this submission, the court said Navayana was free to publish AoC
at its own risk. </quote>
In short whoever license Ambedkar works under CC has to take same risk . I
doubt Wikimedia community have to wait till 70 years after authors death
till using these works . Releasing them under CC does not carry any legal
meaning .
Even though dr B.R Ambedkar's works are available as a pdf and circulated
online for last 10+ years (see a set at
) This
is the reason that prevented us from uploading it to commons till date
~ regards
Anivar