[Foundation-l] foundation-l Digest, Vol 89, Issue 44

[Wjhonson]

I don't believe your claim that you can take something which is PD, make an exact image of it, slap it up in a new work of your own (enjoying copyright protection automatically) and then claim copyright over that PD image in your work.

Copyright applies to the presentation of your work, showing creativity.  An image that you reproduce faithfully shows no creativity and can enjoy no new copyright, no matter how hard you push your view.  That's it.  Period.

So I can freely copy any PD image, from any source, and not need to worry about copyright violation.  PD doesn't change simply because a PD item is republished.  The presentation of the item is copyright, not the item itself.

An additional minor quibble.  At least in the US a person does *not* need to reapply for copyright each time they revise an item.  Copyright is an automatic process, merely by the fact of presenting something in a fixed media.  You *can* file a copyright.  You do not *need* to file a copyright, in order to enjoy copyright protection under the law.

W.