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I will soon be self-publishing a book through VirtualBookworm, and I
am in the final stages of preparing the manuscript. As part of the
copyright notice, I want to include some specific provisions for fair
use, and limitations on fair use. The following is my proposed
copyright text. My question is whether, in any respect, there is
anything unreasonable, or possibly even unwise, in the following:
"Copyright 2004 Steven C. Oppenheimer. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
recording, or otherwise, including but not limited to print media,
electronic storage media, and Web pages, without the express prior
written permission of the author, Steven C. Oppenheimer.
The sole exception is that limited excerpts from this book, not to
exceed 1500 words in total, are permitted for purposes of book reviews
and other recognized fair use applications (e.g., criticism,
commentary, news reporting), provided the excerpts are clearly
identified as such, and provided that the full title of the book and
authorship are included with the excerpts."
I also intend to include the following notice with an excerpt, which
will be posted as a .pdf on the Web site for the book. Same questions
apply:
"This excerpt from [my book] may be freely redistributed via print or
electronic media, provided the full document is transmitted or
reproduced, and provided no alterations are made to the content
(including but not limited to copyright notices), and provided that no
fee of any kind is charged for the reproduction or distribution of, or
access to, this excerpt. Limited excerpts from this document, not to
exceed 1500 words in total, are permitted for purposes of book reviews
and other recognized fair use applications (e.g., criticism,
commentary, news reporting), provided the excerpts are clearly
identified as such, and provided the full title of the book and
authorship are included with the excerpts."
Thanks in advance for all replies.
Steve O.
Steven AATT Domain DDOOTT com
To send an e-mail, substitute @ for AATT, a . for DDOOTT, and OpComm for Domain
Standard Antiflame Disclaimer: Please don't flame me. I may actually *be* an
idiot, but even idiots have feelings.
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"Copyright 2004 Steven C. Oppenheimer. All rights reserved. No part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
recording, or otherwise, including but not limited to print media,
electronic storage media, and Web pages, without the express prior
written permission of the author, Steven C. Oppenheimer.
The sole exception is that limited excerpts from this book, not to
exceed 1500 words in total, are permitted for purposes of book reviews
and other recognized fair use applications (e.g., criticism,
commentary, news reporting), provided the excerpts are clearly
identified as such, and provided that the full title of the book and
authorship are included with the excerpts."
While it doesn't sound terribly unreasonable, what you're attempting to do
is amend 17 USC 107 ... only Congress gets to do that
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On Mon, 24 May 2004 19:14:58 -0400, "Steven O." <null@null.com> wrote:
I will soon be self-publishing a book through VirtualBookworm, and I
am in the final stages of preparing the manuscript. As part of the
copyright notice, I want to include some specific provisions for fair
use, and limitations on fair use.
Why?
I'm not an intellectual property lawyer, but my experience has been
that, in most cases, the less that is said, the better. So I don't
write something without a reason such as:
1. There is no controlling law;
2. There is controlling law but I don't like it and want a different
rule to apply; or
3. There is controlling law and I want to make sure the parties know
what it is by restating it.
My understanding of copyright law is that there is already a concept
of "fair use," so I wouldn't write a provision for fair use into a
copyright notice without first knowing what the law was and then
having a reason to want to change it.
I also believe that you can only expand the concept of fair use, and
can't contract it (because otherwise you be claiming more protection
that copyright law gives you). It therefore follows that anything you
write will be giving something away that you don't necessarily need to
give away. My concern would be that you will give away more than you
wanted or expected.
Which is why my rule of thumb is that, unless you're sure you know
what you are doing, the less you say the better.
*Dan Evans
*Author of the Tax Protester FAQ
*http://evans-legal.com/dan/tpfaq.html
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