From: Patrick Friel (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Feb 14 2008 - 14:47:42 PST
Hi Gene,
I would say you have to be careful. I'd want to speak to a lawyer
specializing in copyright law. Even a one-time consultation visit would
probably save you a lot of headache. Off the top of my head, the writing
would likely depend on the contracts or agreements made with you and other
writers - sometimes publications require authors to forgo all rights to
their work (usually those who are paid staff); sometimes they retain usage
of the material for their own "business" use, but the copyright for other
uses stays with the author. And I'm sure lots of variants on these.
I would think that film stills and advertising are NOT something the LA Free
Press or Mr. Kunkin can claim any rights to whatever.
The other items (graphics, cartoons, etc.) would likely follow the same kind
of pattern for writing. Were they things done by freelancers, who were paid
for one-time use only with the artists retaining rights? Were they done by
staff where the publication owns rights?
It will all probably be on some kind of case by case basis for everything,
requiring a lot of research if you want to make sure you are covering
yourself well against possible infringement claims.
Are you self publishing or going through a publisher? Any reputable
publisher will want copyrights cleared on everything, I would think.
It is possible that, if you are scanning and reprinting entire pages from LA
Free Press as they were published, that in that form all rights are still
with the paper and Mr. Kunkin. But I'd still want independent, expert
confirmation on that and not just Mr. Kunkin's word.
Good luck,
Patrick Friel
Chicago
On 2/14/08 10:51 AM, "gyoungblood" <email suppressed> wrote:
> Frameworkers,
> I recall that recently there was a discussion on this list about copyright. I
> didn't follow it because I had no need, but now I do. My question is about
> printed material, not moving image.
>
> I want to publish a book of the articles I wrote for the underground
> newspaper, The Los Angeles Free Press, between 1967 and 1970. In addition to
> the articles (150 of them, mostly on film and music) it will include a lot of
> psychedelic graphics (ads, illustrations, cartoons, layouts), as well as film
> stills that accompanied the film reviews, which were provided by the
> distributors. The cartoons are by Ron Cobb, who copyrighted each one in his
> name.
>
> We are scanning and digitally reprinting the pages. The publisher, Art Kunkin,
> assures me there will be no problem because every issue of the Free Press was
> copyrighted in his name, or in the name of the Free Press. He says he's never
> had a problem, but I'm not sure I should trust that.
>
> I'm totally ignorant about copyright, so I'm wondering if anyone can recommend
> a website, or a person, that gives such advice, so I don't have to pay a
> lawyer. For example, it occurs to me that this material may be in public
> domain, but I have no idea if it is, or what that would mean.
>
> Any advice will be greatly appreciated. The book should be of interest to our
> community since it contains reviews of some west coast filmmakers of the '60s
> who are now generally unknown or forgotten. And a lot more...
>
> Gene Youngblood
> 28 Sunrise Road
> Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 USA
> vox/fax: +1.505.424.8708
> email suppressed
>
> __________________________________________________________________ For info on
> FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.