From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 22:58:18 -0600 Thanks for the link to the "excellent analysis," with which I agree 100% and which actually makes the same argument I was trying to make: > But the Fonds also takes things one step farther and argues that Otto Frank's contributions to his adaptation also make him a co-author of the original work, the diaries famously written by his daughter. Can this possibly be right? > > Of course not. Headlines and legal machinations notwithstanding, you remain the sole author of your work regardless of whether someone else compiles it for publication. Sandy Thatcher > From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2015 10:45:37 +0000 > > Sorry. I hit reply too soon and did not finish my message. > > The citation for the case about restoring copyright in works of > foreign origin, which I meant to include, is Golan v. Holder from > 2012. > > As for the issue of handwriting, it is really not relevant. Suppose > three people are writing an article together and one of them hand > writes her sections. That content is later combined with the > contributions of the other two authors in to a single, unified whole. > Under our law, the copyright in the entire work, because it was > intentionally a single entity, would be unified, shared equally buy > the three authors, and would reach back to encompass the content of > the handwritten sections. Thus one of the coauthors could elect to > publish the whole article without the permission of the others (as > happened in Weinstein v. University of Illinois). The existence of a > handwritten manuscript of part of the work would not change that. > > The issue, of course, in the Anne Frank case, is intent and whether a > court should accept the claim that the Diary is a joint work. An > excellent analysis, which details the real reasons this claim should > be rejected, can be found at: > > http://www.authorsalliance.org/2015/11/17/anne-frank-and-the-lasting-legacy-of-the-public-domain/ > > Kevin > > Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S., J.D. > Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications > Duke University Libraries > Durham, NC 27708 > [log in to unmask]