Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
Actually, I don't think you can digitize some
public domain work and
change its title unless you also change its content.
At least in France, that would be forbidden by the moral rights
legislation.
This is likely to be a huge, and perhaps incompatable difference,
between American and French law. Changing and modifying public domain
works is commonly accepted, and often encouraged under many
circumstances. That appears to be precisely what has happened here with
the Gutenberg Encyclopedia.
From what I see, based on some research I've just done searching
various web pages and trying to read court opinons, etc. (IANAL) the use
of a trademark is reserved for the company who holds it. In this case
we (or at least I am) trying to advertise the project and discuss the
project in public forums. In this situation, I am not legally entitled
to describe the project as "Wikisource Encyclopaedia Britianica, 11th
Edition", because that implies endorsement from Encyclopaedia
Britianica, Inc. This puts the Wikimedia Foundation into a real legal
bind if that trademark is used widely, for example as a hyperlink from
Wikipedia articles to Wikisource, or even discussed outside of Wikimedia
projects.
For what is happening right now, the full name is being used, and I
guess for now we will use it and hope the lawyers won't come knocking on
Jimbo's front door anytime soon, unless I hear a contrary opinion from
anybody.
--
Robert Scott Horning