Copyright

[ACardiganAndAFrown]

Wasn't exactly sure where to put this but anyhow:

How does one go about checking on the copyright of something exactly?

I've been spending some time digitalizing an old dictionary that I have and I now that I'm getting near the end I wanted to know if I could actually do anything with it, other than personally that is...but I have no idea about how to go about doing this

 

[mikelove]

Honestly, for old titles this is really hard - it's the biggest reason why we're not offering the Matthews Chinese Dictionary yet, we researched the copyright but were unable to clear it. I'd recommend reaching out to anybody referenced in that old dictionary - author (or author's heirs), publisher, university, etc - and seeing if anybody is willing to take responsibility for it. But there's no central registry of this stuff as there is for patents and trademarks - there probably ought to be, and many copyright reform schemes have been proposed that would create one (e.g. by requiring any copyright holder to update their information every few years / pay a token fee in order to keep a copyright active during its term), but for now, clearing rights to old works is an extremely challenging undertaking.

Generally, any dictionary we offer in Pleco has either a) been released under an open-source license from a source that we have confidence in (and with data that does not appear to have been cribbed from any other source) or b) been licensed to us by a publisher, with a clause in the license agreement warranting that that publisher actually has the right to license it to us and indemnifying us against any losses we might suffer if it turns out they don't. (so that the liability for any potential copyright infringement is on them and not us)

 

[ACardiganAndAFrown]

Honestly, for old titles this is really hard - it's the biggest reason why we're not offering the Matthews Chinese Dictionary yet, we researched the copyright but were unable to clear it. I'd recommend reaching out to anybody referenced in that old dictionary - author (or author's heirs), publisher, university, etc - and seeing if anybody is willing to take responsibility for it. But there's no central registry of this stuff as there is for patents and trademarks - there probably ought to be, and many copyright reform schemes have been proposed that would create one (e.g. by requiring any copyright holder to update their information every few years / pay a token fee in order to keep a copyright active during its term), but for now, clearing rights to old works is an extremely challenging undertaking.

Generally, any dictionary we offer in Pleco has either a) been released under an open-source license from a source that we have confidence in (and with data that does not appear to have been cribbed from any other source) or b) been licensed to us by a publisher, with a clause in the license agreement warranting that that publisher actually has the right to license it to us and indemnifying us against any losses we might suffer if it turns out they don't. (so that the liability for any potential copyright infringement is on them and not us)

Very helpful info, thanks a lot.

Do you by chance happen to know if there is some sort of time-limit to the copyrights of dictionaries?
I mean the one I'm working on here is only from 1987 so I don't suppose to would apply anyway but I'm just being curious.

 

[mikelove]

Same as any other copyright, which sadly is much longer than it ought to be thanks to Disney and the Gershwin heirs bribing Congress into passing a series of retroactive copyright extension bills (because obviously "Porgy and Bess" would never have been written if Gershwin had not been confident that 63 years later Congress would pass a law adding 20 years to its copyright) - 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, I believe, unless it was copyrighted by an individual instead of a company in which case it would be 70 years after the death of the author.

(not normally one to weigh in on politics, but happy to do when it's an item that relates to Pleco like IP law, and not shy about using words like "bribe" in relation to an institution that currently has a 9% approval rating)