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 .
We should appreciate that officials at Kannada and
Culture Dept of GoK
have realised the importance of open knowledge philosophy and have agreed
to release the books under CC. This will definitely help in convincing
other departments, academies and universities to release their works under
CC.
The problem i am seeing here is those who worked with govt to get this work
out does not briefed them well on copyright and ways to make it . I am a
bit sceptical to see this happening from CIS , who have many copyright
experts like Lawrence and Pranesh on board
~ regards
Anivar