At 03:30 PM 5/31/01 -0700, Wally wrote: >The listowner is under the impression from an earlier situation (she >abandoned an earlier indexing project) that, since the book is still covered >by copyright laws, that an index of it is a derivative work and that index >cannot be published wihout permission of the copyright-holders. Is that true? Here is one opinion from a non-lawyer. My impression is that there have been few court cases that look at indexing as a copyright issue. One of the few of which I am aware is NEW YORK TIMES v. ROXBURY DATA INTERFACE in which the court concluded that it was fair use for Roxbury to make a personal name index to the copyrighted NY Times indices. Indices are identified as supplemental works under the "works made for hire" doctrine of the copyright law. The key issue would be whether they are also derivative works (since copyright owners have the exclusive right to prepare derivative works). Publishers would disagree, but my guess is that they don't fall within the definition of derivative work found in the law. Obviously the safest thing to do would be to contact the publisher of the records and see if they object to the index. It should be good advertising for the book. If they do object, then the person who made the index had better be ready to defend himself or herself in a lawsuit - even if, as I suspect, they would eventually prevail. Peter Hirtle [email protected]