Re: Copyright Review Management System - U of Michigan IMLS grant

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

This is good news, but the problem is sufficiently complex that I 
wonder whether any system can be created that will cover all the 
complexities involved in determining copyright status. To 
appreciate how complex such determinations can get, I recommend 
Peter Hirtle's recent analysis of how the restoration of foreign 
copyrights under U.S. law in 1994 added another dimension of 
difficulty to the analysis:

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july08/hirtle/07hirtle.html

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press

>The University of Michigan has received $578,955 from the
>Institute of Museum and Library Services to develop a copyright
>review management system. The brief IMLS announcement reads:
>
>"The University of Michigan Library will create a Copyright
>Review Management System (CRMS) to increase the reliability of
>copyright status determinations of books published in the United
>States from 1923 to 1963, and to help create a point of
>collaboration for other institutions. The system will aid in the
>process of making vast numbers of these books available online to
>the general public. Nearly half a million books were published in
>the United States between 1923 and 1963, and although many of
>these are likely to be in the public domain, individuals must
>manually check their copyright status. If a work is not in the
>public domain, it cannot be made accessible online. The CRMS will
>allow users to verify if the copyright status has been
>determined."
>
>Bernie Sloan
>Sora Associates
>Bloomington, IN