SUKAATO's Hypomnema

20240919140926-Acquisition_of_Copyright_Permissions

8 min read

Acquisition of Copyright Permissions

This accords with concern for the law when copy-editing a typescript (see 20240908172931-Copy-Editor_as_Lawyer).

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editor

Under the contract for an academic work, the author is usually required to obtain permission for the use of any copyright material in the work and to pay for it. In complex cases such as an anthology, however, the publisher often does this work for the author. In any event, the publisher should see to it that this often rather onerous work is done properly: that there is a proper clearance of the desired rights, enshrined in a businesslike way in an exchange of letters.

In summary,the role responsible for “clearance of […] rights¨ to reproduce given work is determined by the following factors (Butcher 2006, 61):

  • For monographs, especially academic ones under contract, the author is delegated the responsibility of clearing rights
  • For anthologies or concatenation of works from different authors or creators, the publisher is delegated the responsibility of clearing rights

Importantly, whether the author or publisher must do so (refer to Copyright Clearance Roles), if permission is required for reproduction of certain works there should be a documented paper trail of the given permissions for the works to be reproduced (Ibid). Keep in mind, though, that generally such permission is required (Ibid).

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

In general, the use of another’s work must be subject to written permission from the copyright holder or his or her publisher or agent.

In what cases are permission or rights clearances not required? In those stated in the following (Butcher 2006, 62-63):

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

Two distinct copyright periods apply in the USA, […]. If the work was created before 1 January 1978, protection ran for a period of twenty-eight years from first publication, renewable for a further twenty-eight years; this renewal period was then extended to forty-seven years under the 1976 Act, making a total of seventy-five years from first publication. Works completed from 1 January 1978 onwards were to be subject to the Berne period of fifty years from the creator’s death, but the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act of 1998 extended the American term to seventy years from the creator’s death and any new works that were in copyright on 27 October 1998 were subject to this new term. Any new book published now is subject to the term of copyright of seventy years from the author’s death.

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

In US law, a general exception is granted under the concept of ‘fair use´, and the US Copyright Act of 1976 lays down useful general ‘factors to be considered´ in deciding whether a use is ‘fair´ or not:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount of substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work

To summarize, no permission is needed to make use of or reproduce a portion of a copyrighted material if (Ibid):

  • The material is “out of¨ copyright, i.e. the given work that had been bound to a copyright has been opened to the public domain. For the US, there are two distinct copyright periods:
    1. “Works completed from 1 January 1978 onwards¨ are “[…] subject to the Berne period of years from the creator’s death.¨
      • Note that works published prior had an initial copyright period of years, with subsequent renewal of the copyright pre- 1 January 1978 adding years.
      • The Berne period is the most common copyright period across the globe.
    2. The work was newly “in copyright on 27 October 1998¨ such that it would then have a -year copyright period after the respective creator’s death
      • This is the currently effective copyright period for new works.
  • The use or deal made of the copyright material is considered “fair¨–this is also called a “fair use¨ or “fair dealing¨ exception. Fairness is comprised of the following factors:
    1. How insubstantial the reproduction of portions of a work are
    2. The use such a reproduction is for (e.g., non-profit educational purposes, criticism or review)
    3. The effect such a reproduction has on the potential market for or value of the original full work.

Certain kinds of copyrighted material need special consideration. For example, musical compositions are protected “in the same way as a literary work,¨ yet they have the special consideration that in some cases more than one copyright may be involved, whether for the melody, the arrangement, or in the lyrics (Butcher 2006, 63-64):

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

A musical composition is protected in the same way as a literary work […]. Sometimes there are two copyrights involved – in the melody and in the arrangement – so that the fact that the composer has long been dead, or that it is from a traditional folk melody, does not necessarily mean that a quotation is out of copyright. Sometimes there are three copyrights: in the melody, in the arrangement, and in the words.

Photographs or illustrations are similar to any other copyrighted material (Butcher 2006, 64):

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

If drawings or photographs have been taken from another source and they are still in copyright, permission must be obtained, subject to the ‘criticism´ or ‘review´ exception.

The main difference is that even after permission has been obtained more generally, permission must also be obtained for specific purposes the illustration or photograph will be put to (Ibid):

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

If an illustration is used on the cover, or may be wanted generally for publicity reasons, permission for that purpose is necessary even if permission has already been obtained for use in the book.

In the case of photographs, additional permission may be needed from the subject of the photograph, especially if the subject is living, due to other protections such as privacy protections. A good example is medical privacy protections (Ibid):

From “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter¨ in Butcher’s Copy-Editing

Hospitals hold copyright for any photographs taken during the course of work done on their premises and permission needs to be obtained from the patient if the subject of the photograph can be recognized.

Further, acknowledgment of “the sources of all in-copyright quotations (words or music), tables and illustrations¨ is a legal requirement “whether or not it was necessary to obtain permission for their use,¨ i.e. whether or not their usage or partial reproduction is subject to copyright exceptions as seen in Copyright Exceptions (Butcher 2006, 65).

Acknowledgement only counts legally if done properly (Ibid):

Quote

The ‘sufficient acknowledgement´ required by the law is made by giving the author (composer, etc.) and title, but in the normal run of events fuller acknowledgement is given, using any special wording provided by the copyright holder, so check the permission correspondence. […] If you do have to depart from the wording laid down by the American publisher, write to say why and give the wording you propose to use; in most cases it is an explicit condition of use that a certain wording is used, and any deviation must therefore be subject to permission. […] The acknowledgement must also be made in the place required by the copyright holder, who may say that the acknowledgement should be made immediately below the quotation or illustration, or on the imprints page (verso of the title page).

Legal acknowledgement of copyright material, permitted by fair use, being out of copyright or the copyright holder, thereby consists of giving at minimum the creator of and title for the material in the exact manner dictated by the copyright holder, and placing those, relative to the material used, as required by the copyright holder (Ibid).

legal_rights legal academia monograph publishing publishers documentation paper_trail public_domain fair_use fair_dealing Berne_period substance substantiality value market_value insubstantiality lyric verso titles pages table drawing photograph imprints_page imprints_folio law delegation editing editor copy-editor copy-editing

bibliography

  • “Preparing the Text for the Typesetter.” In Butcher’s Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders, 4th ed., 28–68. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Graph View

Backlinks