[Foundation-l] Comment on Copyright Orphans

[Yann Forget]

Hi,

Le Tuesday 19 April 2005 08:46, Delirium a écrit :
> Ray Saintonge wrote:
> > I agree with Anthere that we perhaps should submit something
> > representing WMF, but it's hard to know what kind of official position
> > we should take   In my own submission I certainly could not go so far
> > as to state that I was representing the Foundation.  They were
> > entirely my own opinions.  What points should we be makeing?

(...)
> I get the impression that the case the copyright office is most
> interested in is one that doesn't impact us at all: The case where
> someone is willing to pay a copyright holder for a license to use their
> work (e.g. for a film adaptation of a book), but cannot do so because
> the copyright holder is unable to be located.

Trying to broaden the issue, I think that there are many cases where Wikimedia 
projects would benefit from such works if they would be available. I don't 
know about any specific documents which would be covered by the copyright 
office, but I can name documents in other countries and languages.

Two examples from what I have encontered myself:
1. French postage stamps from the 1920s and 1930s. The owners of copyright are 
the heirs of the drawers and engravers and are obviously quite difficult to 
locate.
2. Translations of M. K. Gandhi's writings from the 1920s and the 1930s.

I believe this is quite the same for translations of many languages of this 
period.

AFAIK, there is not such an office in France. I don't know about India, but 
the current editor of Gandhi's writings, Navajivan Press, easily allows free 
use of the original works. It can't help to find old translators of Gandhi's 
works however. In India, copyright term is 60 years after the dead of the 
author, so these translations may be in the public domain.

> -Mark

Regards,

Yann
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