Hello everybody. I have a question about watermark removal on Wikisource. If I removal claims copyright page and watermark of Google in the Google-scanned books under this guidance < https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Help:DjVu_files#Removing_a_copyright_page%3E, then legal or not? Because per statement of Google, the Google-scanned books must be preserved such pages and watermark copyright.
This guidance about removal watermark mainly based on case law Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. (see also < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:When_to_use_the_PD-scan_tag#USA%3...), which (follow Wikipedia < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.#Subsequen...) is in controversial: *"We are not convinced that the single case to which we are pointed where copyright was awarded for a “slavish copy” remains good law." The appeals court ruling cited and followed the **United States Supreme Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court decision in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service** (1991), explicitly rejecting difficulty of labor or expense as a consideration in copyrightability..."*
Suppose that in future Google litigation Wikipedia for removing the page of Google claiming copyright in the Google-scanned books and that case was heard by the appeals court or the US Supreme Court (higher competent than Southern New York Court) and the court reverse ruling, then what should we do?
Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy Supporter, Wikimedia Projects
Cropping scans (briss is great for such a work) is very useful for a comfortable proofreading. What I've to do, if unluckily Google watermark is cut away by a useful cropping?
More: Google can use the hard wikisource work to enhance the quality of the text layer of its books, so wikisource is working (for free) for Google.
Last: I never use Google pdf files as they are; I usually use Internet Archive djvu files, as they are.
Alex
2015-10-20 17:18 GMT+02:00 Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy minhhuywiki@gmail.com:
Hello everybody. I have a question about watermark removal on Wikisource. If I removal claims copyright page and watermark of Google in the Google-scanned books under this guidance < https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Help:DjVu_files#Removing_a_copyright_page%3E, then legal or not? Because per statement of Google, the Google-scanned books must be preserved such pages and watermark copyright.
This guidance about removal watermark mainly based on case law Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. (see also < https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:When_to_use_the_PD-scan_tag#USA%3...), which (follow Wikipedia < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel_Corp.#Subsequen...) is in controversial: *"We are not convinced that the single case to which we are pointed where copyright was awarded for a “slavish copy” remains good law." The appeals court ruling cited and followed the **United States Supreme Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court decision in Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications_v._Rural_Telephone_Service** (1991), explicitly rejecting difficulty of labor or expense as a consideration in copyrightability..."*
Suppose that in future Google litigation Wikipedia for removing the page of Google claiming copyright in the Google-scanned books and that case was heard by the appeals court or the US Supreme Court (higher competent than Southern New York Court) and the court reverse ruling, then what should we do?
Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy Supporter, Wikimedia Projects
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Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy, 20/10/2015 17:18:
Suppose that in future Google litigation Wikipedia for removing the page of Google claiming copyright
The watermark is removed by the user, not by "Wikipedia". The user of course may be considered a criminal in USA (everyone is a criminal in USA; see Aaron Swartz), but we only care about the copyright of Wikimedia projects content. If a book is in the public domain, any derivative is fine.
Nemo
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