Posted by M. Arthur Auslander on February 10, 1999 at 07:45:59:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Public Domain and artwork posted by Eric Fandrich on February 09, 1999 at 13:17:31:
: Allow me to suggest an example:
: I have a book of poetry and images. On one page is a poem by Tennyson, on the other an impressionist painting by Renoir.
: I am confident that I can copy the text of the poem: the poem is public domain.
: Can I copy the painting? It too ostensibly, is in the public domain. One can see how things get murky quickly, and this it gets difficult.
: It seems to me that there is imprecision in the concept of "Public Domain" or at least in my understanding of it.
The Answer is simple. The public domain literary work is public domain literary work either in its original text or repubished in another book. The reproduction of a work of art is protectable even if the basic work is in the public domain. Thus if a book contains public domain text and reprocuctions of works of art, the copyright on the book will protect the reproduced art even if the text is in the public domain.
M. Arthur Auslander
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: Is there any case law dealing with this explicitly?