Re: question about assigning copyright to PG
Greg Newby <[email protected]> Mon, 7 Jul 2003 22:20:46 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.literature.e-books.gutenberg.volunteers.announce |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <LYRIS-1741495-3619486-2003.07.08-06.06.00--gclegav-gutvol-l#[email protected]> |
I'll append our general guidelines, FYI. But we're
always happy to work with copyright holders to meet
their needs/desires.
We'll likely be doing lots more copyrighted stuff in
the future, because more authors see the Internet as
a viable publication medium - even for free sources
like Gutenberg!
-- Greg
COPYRIGHT PERMISSION HOW-TO
Project Gutenberg is very happy to distribute materials on which the
copyright has not expired. In order to do this, we need written and
signed permission from the copyright holder.
Due to the risks and challenges of US Copyright Law, we need to have
the letter on paper, sent to Michael Hart.
The letter can be brief, must be signed, and should include:
- The name of the book(s)
- That the letter's sender is the legal copyright holder (or agent)
- Giving Project Gutenberg perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide
rights to distribute the books in electronic form on a royalty-free
basis.
Here are some notes of explanation:
. You do NOT need to grant the book to the public domain.
It is still copyrighted, according to whatever national
laws apply.
. You still own your book, and all rights to it (for example,
you could sell copies of the book in print or electronic form).
. Project Gutenberg has no way of "recalling" our etexts,
so you cannot expect to be able to change your mind. Once we
add it to the collection, it will stay there. We can fix
errors or update the formatting, as needed.
. If you desire to have a URL or other information included
with the etext, we will be happy to oblige. Minimally,
we will include clear notation that the book is copyrighted
by the copyright holder.
. The Project Gutenberg header specifies under what conditions
your book may be distributed while associated with the
Project Gutenberg trademark. People might remove this header.
If you want to place additional restrictions (such as no
commercial use or resale), we advise putting them at the
start of the text.
Here is a sample letter, including the address to send it to:
To: Michael S. Hart
Founder, Project Gutenberg
405 West Elm Street
Urbana IL, 61801-3231, USA
Dear Project Gutenberg:
I am the sole copyright holder for the book, "Wallaby Happiness."
It gives me pleasure to grant Project Gutenberg perpetual, worldwide,
non-exclusive rights to distribute this book in electronic
form through Project Gutenberg Web sites, CDs or other current
and future formats. No royalties are due for these rights.
Sincerely,
Gregory B. Newby
[email protected]
-- Including your email in the letter will make it easier for
us to get in touch.
-- Please send email to [email protected] or [email protected]
if you have questions about this process. Thank you very much
for your consideration of Project Gutenberg!
---
Personalized unsubscribe instructions for [email protected]:
to unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]