[talk-au] Adelaide out of copyright street directory

[Stephen Hope]

2009/1/18 Liz <edodd at billiau.net>:
> Important matter on copyright duration
> I realised only very recently that we haven't been reading the rules correctly
> and published material - the street directory, the paper map, expires after 25
> years at midnight on the next  New Years Eve
>
>
>       Published editions
> The rule for duration of copyright in a published edition 25 years from the
> end of the year of first publication; the AUSFTA did not change this rule.
>
>
> source
> http://www.copyright.org.au/pdf/acc/infosheets_pdf/G023.pdf
>
> so at the end of 2008 we can use published material from any time up to and
> including all of 1983.
>
> this of course doesn't mean its correct - it may still have changed or never
> been right at all
>


No definitely not, you're reading it wrong.  If you look at foot note
5 in that same document you'll see it says

'A "published edition" means the typographical arrangement and layout
of a published work.'

It definitely does not apply to the contents - just the layout.  If,
for example, I reprinted one of Shakespeare's plays then I would have
a published edition copyright on that version.  It would last 25
years, and somebody else couldn't just copy my work exactly and
republish in that time.  They could type up and print their own
version, however.

Usually the copyright on the contents is longer than the layout, so it
doesn't come into effect.  But the "published edition" copyright is
usually owned by the publisher, not the author.  Say I write a book,
and it is published. I own the copyright on the book, but sell rights
to the publisher to publish it - say "first Australian rights" - first
rights to publish the book in Australia. I then sell the book to a US
publisher to print there.  They can't make an exact copy of the work
from the Australian publisher without having some agreement with them,
which is one reason why the same book published in different countries
almost always looks different.  There are other reasons as well, but
I'm too far off topic already.


Stephen