From: beaurega@ireq.hydro.qc.ca (Denis Beauregard)
Subject: Copyright Question
Organization: Institut de recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Canada
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 18:24:04 GMT

I have a few questions about copyright.  Maybe someone could have an idea?

1- THere is a booklet from the relevant canadian administration about
copyrights.  It says:
a-You don't have to register to have a protection
b-They talk about a "protected" work, like if there are "not-protected" works
c-They give no hint about what is a not-protected work.

Suppose X wrote a book in the 1930's and 1940's (a very large book, indeed,
3 series with about 30 books, with some 600000 marriage records summaries).
However, there is absolutely no copyright logo (i.e. (C) 1936 Author)
nor any mention of All rights reserved, you can't copy, etc.
There is no legal deposit.  I checked this in the 3rd series of books
(published about 1949, after death of author, so the 50 year period for
posthum works is not completed).

In those circumstances, can I copy the books and make them electronically
available?  The data is not artistic nor any creation, but a collection
of data one could find in the original records and in other books (so that
you can't say XXX data is from work YYY or ZZZ).  There are differences
between the various sources and I would like to be sure when there are
differences, I took the original good one.

2- In genealogy, it is common to step true a lot (i.e. 2000 books and
microfilms) to copy in all those data information about our family, then
to re-assemble the information and to publish it, without mentionning
the 2000 books (for obvious reasons...).  I think we can call this a
collection, and it is considered different IMHO as the original works,
which were other collections.  I presume I can take one or more of these
collections, and make them electronically available.

Can I skip the intermediate step (i.e. the one that consist in copying
only related data, like a family) and put this kind of data in a
electronically usable format with public access?  I plan to limit
the copy to the pre-1800 period with the 2000 books cover a longer
time period.  I presume the pre-1800 period will include less than 10%
of the complete data.

3- I heard about a company selling addresses.  You could buy, for example,
10000 addresses of lawyers or doctors to send them some advertising.
That company took a lot of addresses from phone books.  They actually
copied the phone books (which has a copyright notice) and were suited by
the phone company.  The phone company lost because the suited company
was selling a "collection" of addresses from many phone books and not
the same collection.  In other words, the collection was not the same.

Does anyone know the reference for this?  I just don't even remember
if it was a Canadian or American company.  If it was a Canadian company,
then I can do what I intended to do legally.  Else, I will have to
find some turn around (I think it would be enough I include the source
of data).

4- There was also a software company selling a computer program.  Someone
forget to put the notice about copyright on the sealed envelop (it was
somewhere else in the package).  A customer then sold copies of the
same program (actually plagiate) and was suited.  Here again, the case
was lost because the customer could do the selling in question without
seeing the copyright notice (it was not in a place that "jumped" to
the reader eye).

As in 3-, does someone has the refence for this?  I think it would be
more common in the computer-based net to find someone who remember
this case!

5- Thanks in advance.  Have a nice holiday, folks :-)

-- 
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