[Foundation-l] Copyright on Wikisource

[Delphine Ménard]

On 3/14/06, Yann Forget <yann at forget-me.net> wrote:

> The question is asked whether we can host on Wikisource French authors whose
> works are not yet in the public domain in France, but are in the USA.
> Recently Villy and JB Soufron said we can't. JB Soufron supported the site
> "les Classiques des sciences sociales" when they host the very same works.
> Why not on Wikisource?
>
> However we do host such works in Wikisource for the last two years. Why
> changing policy now? On all subdomains, we apply US law regarding copyright.
> Why applying different laws, different standards, on different subdomains?
>
> More over, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of web sites hosted in US laws
> which have these kind of works. AFAIK, there never was any judgement against
> them. So I don't understand why Wikisource could not host these works.
>
> Further more, I would suggest than Wikisource should be hosted in Canada, so
> that the benefit of Canadian copyright law could be used.

Again (this was already discussed on the French mailing list regarding
another matter), thinking that because the sites are in Florida (or
anywhere else in the world) that you can avoid, as a French resident,
French law, is quite disturbing indeed. Living in France, you *have*
to respect French law. So as contributors, we should always respect
the law of the country we live in in the first place.

This is, imho, basic  common sense, and (again) I am appalled that
anyone could ever suggest the contrary.

Anyway, let's get "lawyery" here.

Circular 38b of the United States Copyright office
(http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38b.pdf) states:

"[This circular] amends section 104A of the Copyright Act to provide
for the automatic restoration of copyright in certain foreign works
that are in the public domain in the
United States but are protected by copyright or neighboring rights in
the source country. The effective date for restoration of copyright
for works from countries that are currently eligible is January 1,
1996.

and:

"Copyright in eligible works was restored January 1, 1996. To be
eligible, the work must meet all the following requirements:"

1. At the time the work was created, at least one author (or
rightholder in the case of a sound recording) must have been a
national or domiciliary of an eligible country. An
eligible country is a country, other than the United States, that is a
member of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works (Berne Convention), is a member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), or is subject to a presidential proclamation that
extends restored copyright protection to that country on the basis of
reciprocal treatment to the works of U.S. nationals or domiciliaries;
2. The work is not in the public domain in its source country through
expiration of the term of protection;
3. The work is in the public domain in the United States because the
work did not comply with formalities imposed at any time by the U.S.
law,4 the work lacked subject
matter protection in the United States in the case of sound recordings
fixed before February 15, 1972, or the work lacked national
eligibility in the United States; and
4. If published, the work must have first been published in an
eligible country and must not have been published in the United States
during the 30-day period following its first publication in that
eligible country.

And finally (can't get any clearer)

Term of Copyright
The copyright in any work in which copyright is restored will last for
the remainder of the term of copyright that the work would have
enjoyed if the work had never entered the public domain in the United
States.
Generally, the U.S. copyright term for works published before January
1, 1978, lasts for 95 years from the year of first publication. [snip]
For works published on or after January1, 1978, the term of copyright
is the life of the author plus 70 years.

For example:
I)A French short story that was first published without copyright
notice in 1935 will be treated as if it had both been published with a
proper notice and properly renewed, meaning that its restored
copyright will expire on December 31, 2030 (95 years after the U.S.
copyright would have come into existence).

This said, I am not a lawyer and have probably gotten all of that
wrong...(I didn't read the fine print).

Cheers,

Delphine

--
~notafish