Re: Welsh book on Runes?

etaonsh wrote:

> > Does PG have guidelines for
> verifying a book is in PD before
> copying it? I mean besides "its
> really old, more than a hundred
> years, so it must be OK"? Is there a
> procedure that was used to vet the
> status? One mistake is all it will
> take to destroy the good name and
> works of PG and other projects by
> association.
> >
> > Barry Caplan
> > www.i18n.com
> >
> I gather you are referring to
> possible breaches of copyright here.
> Much as I am in general punctilious
> about the law, myself, I must admit
> to being more concerned, in this
> instance, about the 'totally
> legal'(?) historical suppression of
> Welsh language, the property of the
> Welsh people, than in worries about
> the copyright of a copyright owner
> who owns a book displaying the
> defiant runes of the Welsh
> resistance movement, at no stage the
> latter having likely been asked
> regarding THEIR copyright
> permission.

Owning a book has no bearing whatsoever on the copyright of its
contents.

The classic example is the case of private letters owned by a collector,
where the exact wording may not be published without the permission of
the literary executor. This has played havoc with all of T. S. Eliot's
biographers, for instance.

Languages are not the "property" of anyone.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...