Hello universitystudent~
First, it?s important to know that if a book or other work is in the
public domain, you cannot re-copyright it. When you see public domain
works with new copyrights on them, the copyright only covers the way
the work is presented (for example, a collage or collection of public
domain images). Only the original creator, an individual or group that
made work-for-hire to the original creator, or the creator?s heirs can
obtain copyright protection for the work itself.
That said, you can search who owns copyrights at the U.S. Copyright
Office website. You will only find records from 1978 forward:
http://www.copyright.gov/records
For older records, you can find the ?Catalog of Copyright Entries? at
many larger libraries. It was published beginning in 1891. Any work
older than this is in the public domain.
You may also do in-person searches at the Library of Congress James
Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington,
D.C. 20559-6000. You may generally search for free, or you can pay the
staff to search for you.
All these search methods may be necessary to get the most accurate
information about who holds a copyright, but the U.S. Copyright Office
stresses that even when these searches are completed, the results may
not always be conclusive. For more information on searching copyright
records and the limitations in doing so, see ?How to Investigate the
Copyright Status of a Work,? U.S. Copyright Office:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html
In all cases, you must have a work in mind first, as records are kept
according to title, author, etc.
That said, it?s highly unlikely that copyright owners would be willing
to hand over their copyrights?even for money. Authors (for example)
and their heirs are well advised to hang on to their copyrights, as
they are much more likely to earn from their work via royalties than
by selling their work outright. Even in cases where the work has been
out of print for many years, there is always the possibilities of
having it reprinted.
In this Researcher?s opinion, your best bet is to look for works in
the public domain. To help you determine what?s in public domain,
check out ?Certain Unpublished, Unregistered Works Enter Public
Domain,? U.S. Copyright Office:
http://www.copyright.gov/pr/pdomain.html
And the ?How Long Copyright Protection Endures?? section of
?Copyright Basics,? U.S. Copyright Office:
?http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#hlc
Good luck!
Kriswrite
RESEARCH STRATEGY:
Researcher?s personal knowledge
Search of the U.S. Copyright Office website |
Request for Answer Clarification by
universitystudent-ga
on
23 Aug 2004 15:43 PDT
I want to buy copyrights of "how to" books that could be helpful to
people? Where can I find the contact information on their owners so I
can discuss purchasing these rights from them? I visited the
government sites you mentioned and could not find this information.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
universitystudent-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 05:50 PDT
DEAR SIR
WE WANT TO HAVE A LIST OF "HOW TO BOOKS"
THAT HAVE ENTERED THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. ON SUBJECTS SUCH AS
GARDENING,LONG LIFE,WEALTH,HEALTH,CHILD REARING,FARMING OR ANY USEFUL
BOOK THAT COULD BE OF HELP TO AN AVERAGE USA CITIZEN.
PLEASE SEND ME A LIST OF THESE TYPE OF BOOKS THAT ARE AVAILABLE AND
HOW I CAN ACCESS THESE BOOKS.PERHAPS YOU CAN SEND ME LINKS TO SITES ON
THE INTERNET WHERE I CAN ACCESS THESE BOOKS AND DOWNLOAD THEM.YOUR
HELP IS APPRECIATED
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Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 07:50 PDT
Hello Universitystudent~
Unfortunately, your original question asked specifically how to find
the owners of copyrights; this information was provided in my Answer.
Your new question (requesting a list of "how to" books in the public
domain) really needs to be posted as a new question. However, I can
tell you that it's impossible to make a list of books in any genre
that have entered the public domain. The list would change constantly,
for one thing. And, more importantly, no one keeps a list of books
that are going into public domain.
If you want to find "how to" books in the public domain, you'll have
to haunt antiquarian and used bookstores, and perhaps online sources
like eBay and abebooks.com. (If you go to the advanced search on the
latter [ http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry?cm_re=A*Search%20Box*Advanced%20Search
], you can search by keyword ["how to"] and year.) When you find a
book that you think may be in the public domain, if it's a more recent
book, you'll probably need to do a search at the Copyright Office, to
ensure that it is, indeed, available to you.
Here's another website that can help you determine if something is in
the public domain; "When U.S. Works Pass Into the Public Domain," at
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Regards,
Kriswrite
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Request for Answer Clarification by
universitystudent-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 09:00 PDT
THIS WAS NOT THE ANSWER I WAS LOOKING FOR. MY ORIGINAL QUESTION WAS
"HOW DO I BUY THE COPYRIGHTS OF BOOKS FROM OWNERS? I AM LOOKING FOR A
WEBSITE OR LINK WHERE BUYERS AND SELLERS CAN TRANSACT BUSINESS.I WANT
TO BUY "HOW TO BOOKS" THE GOVENMENT WEBSITE YOU RECOMMENDED WAS NOT
WHAT I NEED AS IT IS NOT A MARKETPLACE AND HOW TO BOOKS ARE NOT
LISTED.
|
Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 11:38 PDT
Universitystudent~
Unfortunately, what you seek does not exist. There is no website (or
other place) where you can go to find a list of copyrights to buy, or
a list of "how to" books in the public domain.
Not to belabor the point, but your original question did not ask for a
website or list of copyrights to be purchased. It asked "Where can I
find these [copyright] owners?" and "Can I find books in the public
domain that I can copyright?" Answers to both these questions have
already been given.
If you want to, additionally, ask for "a list of 'how to' books that
have entered the public domain," then you will need to post a new
question.
In the meantime, perhaps this book will interest you: "The Public
Domain: How to Find and Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art &
More," at Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1413300154/ref=cm_rev_prev/103-1288104-4395020?v=glance&s=books
Kriswrite
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
universitystudent-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 12:52 PDT
MY QUESTION WAS "HOW DO I BUY THE COPYRIGHTS OF BOOKS FROM OWNERS?
PLEASE SHOW ME HOW TO DO IT.
DO NOT JUST SEND ME TO THE US GOVENMENT COPYRIGHT WEBSITE AND TELL ME
TO DO RESEARCH.THANK YOU
|
Clarification of Answer by
kriswrite-ga
on
24 Aug 2004 14:59 PDT
Hello universitystudent~
To give you an example of how to use the U.S. Copyright Office
website, I chose a book I once read, ?Damn Good Resume Guide.? I went
to the book search page on the U.S. Copyright Office website:
http://www.copyright.gov/records/cohm.html
typed in the title only, and checked the ?title? option. The resulting
search produced several possible books; I found the one with the
correct title, checked it, checked ?full record display,? and clicked
?submit.? The resulting report showed me the author, the publisher,
and that the book was probably still in print. It also showed that the
author was the copyright holder (or ?claimant?).
Generally, authors can be reached via the publisher. (Just write a
letter to the author in care of the publisher.) However, if the
publisher is no longer in business, or if the author?s book is no
longer in print and the publisher tells you they don?t know how to
contact the author, you?ll have a more difficult task ahead of you.
You may try to track down the author via a trade organization, such as
The Author?s Guild (www.authorsguild.org ), the National Writer?s
Union (www.nwu.org ), The Author?s Registry (www.authorsregistry.org
), HRC Watch (http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/ ), or PEN (www.pen.org ).
You can also use online phone directories such as Switchboard
(http://www.switchboard.com/ )
Another option is to use a copyright clearance company, such as
Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (http://www.copyright.com/ ) or
RSiCopyright (http://www.icopyright.com/ )
It is often a long and frustrating task, but there are few shortcuts,
short of hiring someone to do the work for you.
Finally, you may wish to read ?How to Secure Permission to Use
Copyrighted Works? at the Copyright Management Center:
http://copyright.iupui.edu/permsec.htm#three1
Kriswrite
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