A Question for Experts Here

[Galen Brokaw]

This is interesting. I paid to have photographic images made of some
Mexican pictographic documents housed in the Lilly Library, and they say
that if I ever use them in a publication, I have to pay them a fee of
$100.00 per image. They also charge $100.00 for use of an image in an
exhibition and $15.00 for use in a public or classroom lecture.
Is this passage from 2004 that you cite a change in the law, or has the
Lilly Library been collecting unjustifiable fees?
Also, assuming that the passage cited is not being taken out of context,
I assume that this applies to images that you obtain directly from the
manuscript or original book. In other words, you wouldn't be able to
reproduce an image taken from a facsimile edition without permission
from the publisher, right?

Galen



SIMON LEVACK wrote:
> Richley Crapo wrote:
>
> <<when the original source is a Nahuatl manuscript such as Xolotl or
> Anonymo where the original is housed in a library, does the library
> typically assert control of all copyright authority so that they are the
> entity that must grant permission or is the several hundred years age of
> such a document place it into public domain?>>
>
> Having wrestled with the same problem I think the answer is that it's in
> the public domain. According to the US Copyright Office
>
> "Mere ownership of a book, manuscript, painting, or any other copy or
> phonorecord does not give the possessor the copyright. The law provides
> that transfer of ownership of any material object that embodies a
> protected work does not of itself convey any rights in the copyright."
> (US Copyright Office Circular 1, Revised December 2004)
>
> For the full text of the circular, follow this link:
>
> http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wccc
>
> Simon Levack
> Author of the Aztec Mysteries
> Please take a few moments to visit my website at
> www.simonlevack.com
>
>