Cynthia Parker wrote:
> 
> Steve,
>   Excuse me, but you fail to realize that you copied my transcription of
> old data, and my transcription is copyrightable. I am very much involved
> with the USGenWeb project and am quite aware of what is copyrightable
> and what is not. The data at the archives is waiting there for you to go
> and make your own transcription. It's public domain, but my
> transcription is not public domain. My transcription is copyrighted. It
> is my work.
> 
> I am working on a book with old newspaper transcriptions. When I publish
> it, don't you think that it's copyrightable. It most certainly is. I
> have taken technology courses via the college of library science at USC.
> I have learned quite a bit in those courses. If someone puts up a
> webpage and places a copyright on the page, it's copyrighted.  No one
> else has the right, morally or legally, to make a copy of it, in any
> way, shape, or form....


RESPONSE:  You seem to have confused transcriptions with translations or
compilations.  These are different things altogether.  Translations and
compilations can be copyrightable.  Simple transcriptions can not.

Transcription means copy.  You can't copyright a copy.  You can only copyright
original works of authorship.  If your logic were correct, then anyone could
copy the Congressional record or decisions of the Supreme Court and claim a
copyright to it.  Obviously not true.

The material that I posted was a copy of the roster.  Your web page clearly
states that the roster was copied from the 1898 Hudson letter.  You can't
copyright a roster that was copied from an 1898 document.  The roster is public
domain, regardless what you might claim.  

Now, about your question about publishing a book with materials from old
newspapers.  If you merely copy an old newspaper and republish it, then you have
no copyright.  You merely have a new copy of a public domain work.

However, what you probably will do is compile selected material from various old
newspapers, organize it, and publish the compiled material.  In that case, you
may have a copyright on the compiled work.  But, you would not have a copyright
on each separable part of the work.  Each separate part would still be public
domain and could be freely copied and used by others.  What might be protected
would be your organized compilation of the separate parts taken from multiple
distinct sources.  Provided that there was sufficient original work involved in
the compilation to constitute an original work of authorship.

Similarly, someone might compile selected extracts from the Congressional Record
or the Supreme Court rulings.  They could then publish these as a compiled work
and hold a copyright to that compilation.  Provided of course that the
compilation had sufficient originality to meet the threshold of being an
original work of authorship rather than just a copy.

As to your statement about web pages.  It is true that the presentation itself
shown on a web page can be copyrightable.  But, the actual text placed on a web
page is only copyrightable if it constitutes an original work of intellectual
authorship.  For example, if someone creates a web page and on that page they
place The Lord's Prayer in a fancy frame.  They overall layout and design of the
page, with the prayer in that frame may be copyrightable.  But, the prayer
itself is not and can be freely copied and used by anyone.  Substitute the word
Roster for The Lord's Prayer and the same is true.  The roster itself is public
domain and can be freely copied.  Your web page design and presentation might be
copyrightable, but the roster itself is not.


 The info that you sent to Sumter has
> your name on it and a copyright blurb giving you credit....

RESPONSE:  I did not ask or give permission for anyone to place any copyright
claims on the transcriptions of public domain material which I submitted. 
Please remove those false claims immediately.  Such claims are not in compliance
with copyright law and would not stand up in court. It is ludicrous to claim a
copyright on a simple copy of an old will, death certificate, or birth
certificate.  No court would uphold such an absurd claim.  Narrative discussion
or analysis about the transcription may be copyrightable, but not the document
itself.

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