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Why does Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer (for example) show up in their 1300 banned books list? It’s not under copyright and is available on Gutenberg. Is this some le
by SanjayMehta 2y ago
Why does Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer (for example) show up in their 1300 banned books list? It’s not under copyright and is available on Gutenberg.
Is this some legal angle I’m missing which benefits the plaintiffs in some way?
- Kye 2y agoA republication of something in the public domain can be copyrighted.
- Dalewyn 2y agoNot sure why this is being downvoted because it is correct. The product of public domain materials can be copyrighted. For example, if someone were to publish a new book of Tom Sawyer whose text is in the public domain, that book can be copyrighted. Everyone can still publish their own new books of Tom Sawyer using the public domain materials, but noone can copy that book of Tom Sawyer.
- gravescale 2y agoSpecifically, any new creative input to the book is copyrighted. Usually, this is things like new prefaces or forewords and new illustrations or cover art.
- Kye 2y agoYep. It's one of the more important parts of copyright! Nobody will ever hear about most stuff in the public domain. Letting people benefit from hauling it out of obscurity with updates is good for the commons. Disney took it to an extreme, but I probably never would have heard of the stories they pulled from if someone didn't make hit cartoon movies based on them.
- mhh__ 2y agoIs there some technicality whereby one could still hold rights to illustrations and the colour of the bindings and so on.
- owisd 2y agoNot sure if it applies in this case, but yes the exact typesetting is a separate copyright.