Copyright of I burn Paris

[Janice Pilch]

Dear Bora,

I think the first thing you should do is verify that
the Polish edition of 1929 is the first publication of this
work. The place and date of first publication are the single
most important factors in the process--it helps to be certain
of this at the beginning. I notice that there was also a
Yiddish version of 1929, so it's important to know which came
first.

If the original publisher still exists, it is very likely
that they hold the copyright, or at least they should be able
to tell you who holds it if it was transfered. If they no
longer exist, the rights are probably held by their legal
successor, or in the absence of the legal successor, by the
Polish government.

There is no easy way to track down copyright holders. The
publishers of the other editions may or may not know who
holds the copyright today. Best to start with the Polish
publisher if it exists.

But there might be a short-cut. Try contacting KOPIPOL, the
Association of Copyright Collective Administration for
Authors of Scientific and Technical Works, in Poland. They
handle collective management of rights, and might be able to
track down the current copyright holder. They will want as
much info from you as possible on the work, its first
publication, and also exactly what you want to do with it.
Russell is right that usually copyright holders want to deal
with publishers of translations, not the translators
themselves. But you might at least learn from them who owns
the copyright today.

The website for KOPIPOL is: http://www.kopipol.kielce.pl.

Best regards, Janice

---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:34:38 -0500
>From: Bora Chung <bochung at INDIANA.EDU>
>Subject: [SEELANGS] Copyright of I burn Paris
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>
>Dear SEELANGers,
>I'm trying to get the permission to translate Bruno
Jasienski's 1929 novel "I
>burn Paris (Pale Paryz, Je brule Paris)" The original is in
Polish (I believe)
>and there are also French, Russian and Czech versions. Does
anybody know how to
>track down the copyright holders of any of these versions?
>Bora Chung
>Slavic Lang. and Lit.
>Indiana University
>bochung at indiana.edu
>
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----------------------------------------
Janice T. Pilch, Assistant Professor of Library Administration
Acting Head, Acquisitions, Slavic and East European Library
Librarian for South Slavic Studies and Slavic Languages & Literatures
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
Tel. (217) 244-9399  E-mail: pilch at uiuc.edu

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