Permission

[Sreiko]

Dear friends,

I have in my collection copy of book "In der Luft unbefiegt", author Major Gerog Paul Neumann and published by J.F Lehmans Ferlag, Munchen 1923. My intention is to scan an article starting from page 292 England-Fahrten and it is about L.15 action over England and then place this material in ziped file for download.

Is this legal what I plane to do and who do I have to ask for permission to place this on web for free download. There will be seven pages and full credit attached.

Hi Sreiko,

The first thing that you need to determine is what sort of damage you could do to the author, publisher, or distributor(s) of this book by posting the excerpt on-line. There is a pretty good chance that the author is no longer with us, but I am unsure if the publisher had since gone out of business (I saw a few references that the company dissolved in 1979, but I cannot verify this ).

The book is somewhat rare do to its age, and because you are only providing seven lonely pages, I do not really see a blatant copyright infringement, but this is my opinion. It would be rare indeed for a company to press charges against you for use of such an old and obscure manuscript. Internet copyright laws are still being worked out, as they transcend international borders, so individual country laws are hard to enforce. Because you are going to provide the source of the seven pages (and not claiming it is your own work), I feel that you will cover yourself adequately.

I would look at the laws of the country in which you live, and see what they have to say. I can only vouch for US laws on the matter, where I believe that the information in this book became 'public domain' some time ago, which basically says that it can be shared freely between all individuals. See this website:

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html

It is interesting that the website had this to say:

"Works First Published or Copyrighted Between January 1, 1923, and December 31, 1949, But Not Renewed · If a work was first published or copyrighted between January 1, 1923, and December 31, 1949, it is important to determine whether the copyright was renewed during the last (28th) year of the first term of the copyright. This can be done by searching the Copyright Office records or catalogs as explained previously. If no renewal registration was made, copyright protection expired permanently at the end of the 28th year of the year date it was first secured."

Again, this is US law, and the book is German in origin, but it would be logical to believe that Neumann's book would fall into this category.

Here is another intersting website on the internet and public domain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain

I hope that I was of some help to you. (BTW, the book title is In Der Luft Unbesiegt: Erlebnisse Im Weltkrieg Erzahlt Von Luftkampfern , by Georg Paul Neumann; J.F. Lehmanns Verlag)

regards,

Darren

[Sreiko]

Yes you are correct about the full name of the book. So it look like that even if I release it there would not be a problem. I did not found this publisher excist any more and in this way I hope that would not be a problem to release some material, with full credit, to the public benefit.

Thank you very much for your time and understanding Aerodrome forum is the place of the great gentlemens

[Barrett]

Just FYI: evidently as a general rule in the US (and many countries) copyright expires 70 years after death of the author/composer/whatever.

[Sreiko]

Thank you Barett- I did not know this info. I feel much better now to use this material

Thanks Sreiko, Glad we could help you. Good luck with your project.

BTW, what is the focus of your website?

regards,

Darren