03 March, 2008

how to get credit for Public domain work?

After getting a call from Gurdwara Sahib, I was wonder
how can I make Old Historical Document available to
Public, when people recognize my work, which actually
I did for computerization of those. Surely if
somebody else can copy and make available under
his name (even in public domain), then it will hurt
a lot and I would no longer like to work on those!!!

what is solution? any license?
it seems no, as 60 years old Books, documents automatically
came under Public domain.

What I propose to them it like, we should make
public advt as soon as we public on Internet.
All Punjabi Newspaper, Electrician Media,
we should make those available Details, what we
did, what is effect, who we are, so that
if people find any other copy from somebody else,
they should know "oh, this, this is done by Those
people (us)".

This is only way I found effective.
All Punjabi communist literature is already in
Public Domain, People know it is and who did this.
So Credit for doing such work was not going to waste at all.

3 comments:

Gursharn Singh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gursharn Singh said...

The Online Books Page (
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okbooks.html) says following:


"What about reprints of public domain works? Can I work from those, or do they get a new copyright?
A simple reprint of a book, without any creative additions or changes, does not get a new copyright of its own-- at least not in the United States. (Some other countries may have a limited "facsimile" right-- check local laws for details.) However, some reprints have been re-edited, or include new material, which may be eligible for a new copyright. If you'd like to transcribe or scan a reprint edition, first check the copyright page to see if any new copyrights are claimed. In some cases, reprints only copyright the foreword, or the notes, or new illustrations-- in which case you can just omit those in your transcription. Even if a new edition is copyrightable, issuing a new edition does not in any way lengthen or restore the copyright of older editions.

Note that some people prefer to transcribe from older editions, even if reprint editions are also in the public domain. This may be because the older editions have a more accurate text, or because they want to include the unique details of the older editions (such as the pagination, or the title pages) in their transcription.
"

Summary: Copyright can not be merely applied by reprinting a work already in public domain unless there are re-edits or additions to the original work.
The original work will still remain in public domain.

Gursharn Singh said...

Copyright in India: Law & Procedure on Ezine article website "Duration of registration
The duration granted for works of copyright varies depending on the type of work. Literary or musical works or artistic works, other than photographs, have a life span, which extends for the life of the author and 60 years from the end of the year in which the author dies. However, if the work has not been published, performed, or offered for sale or broadcast during the life of the author, the copyright protection shall continue for a period of 60 years from the end of the year in which any of these acts are done relating to the work.
"

Summary
An literary work can therefore be copyright protected only for a period of 60 years is most cases. Therefore all historic literary works (before 1948) on Sikhism and Punjabi literature are in public domain.