I have a serious question. If any Buffista has knowledge of copyright law, I'd appreciate some input.

I'm thinking of setting up a website to "celebrate" some of the old, out-of-print, books that I find in my wanderings. Many of these books have lots of pictures. I would want to put many of these pictures on the website. Without the pictures, there's no point in doing it. It's travel books, books about countries and cathedrals, that sort of thing.

All of these are 1970s or earlier, but most are within the 75 years that's covered by copyright law (as I recall, it's 75, so that would be anything published since 1931). I know I can't reprint an entire book on-line. How much of a given work can I reprint without breaking a law, having to pay someone, or having to get permission from a publisher that may no longer exist?

And, what about books that are older than 75 years? Are there rules about what I do with those?

Books that are out of copyright, pretty much fair game.

Books that are in copyright, the law is vague. The principle is "fair use." If your web site is free and is "celebrating" the books, you can probably use an image or two from each and some quoted text safely. The "rule of thumb" in academia is 10%. Of course unless your web site becomes wildly popular you are unlikely to attract the notice of anyone who would sue you, and the most you would likely risk is a lawyerly demand to take the site down.

Stanford has a pretty good site: [link]

Here's the text from the government about fair use: [link]

From wikipedia:

In most of the world the default length of copyright for many works is either life of the author plus 50 years, or plus 70 years. Copyright in general always expires at the end of the year concerned, rather than on the exact date of the death of the author. In the United States, all books and other items published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain. In the US, government documents, regardless of date, are all public domain.

hi.

Thanks, DX and flea. That's the info I needed. You all rock.

Hi, Perkins.

Welcome back, Perkins!

Lee! Welcome back!

Hey, it's a Perkins!

It is a (very tired) perkins, who unexpectedly spent last night in the Miami airport, and is glad to be home.

Big Boss just popped into my office and asked, "Are you going to be here Thursday?"

I asked, "Why?"

He said, "Because I just volunteered you."

"Actually, I'm flying to California Thursday morning," I told him.

Big Boss asked, "Is there any chance you can cancel?"

Cue my uproarious laughter.