Mr. Cowan, Any original work created in the past 75 years (in America) is automatically protected by copyright! A document does not need to say "Copyright" nor does anything in particular need to be done with it. I am no attorney and the whole issue of copyrights is too complicated for me, but I assure you that what I have said is true. Before you publish that thesis in any form (including on the internet) you need to find the author and obtain his/her permission in order to protect yourself from litigation. For your own protection, as well as the author's, I urge you to look at the United States Copyright Office web site at the Library of Congress at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/. There you will find this quote, "Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created..." Libbie Griffin >I have shipped the first 25 copies of this thesis and will start winding down >soon. In answer to another gentlemen's question, this master's thesis is not >copywrited, it is part of the public domain, although very obscure. I just >recently found an original copy after years of looking. If anyone else wants >a copy let me know.

Actually, Libby, that's not completely (though it is mostly) true. What you quote is the current state of the law, but it's only been in effect since 1988, if my memory serves me. Prior to that a work published in the US without a copyright notice did indeed go into the public domain, and could not be restored to copyright protection. The later change in the law was not retroactive (except for certain foreign works -- i.e., by non-US nationals -- that does not seem to apply in this situation). Of course, I don't know what Mr. Cowan means when he says it's not protected under copyright, as I don't know how much research he did into its original publication (or whether he searched the Library of Congress registration files, which, by the way, can be done on the web site you mention -- via telnet). I know that masters theses are not infrequently registered (which used to be, but is no longer, a prerequisite for copyright protection in the US), so it's possible that the thesis was indeed registered and, if renewed (another former requirement no longer in effect), would still be protected by copyright. You're right, Libby, to say that copyright is a very complicated area. I'm not a practicing lawyer, either (and this info does not constitute legal advice), but I did work extensively with copyright during 10+ years in publishing (during which time many of these changes were made) and routinely had to determine the copyright status of a work. Copyright status in the US, by the way, is mostly determined by the provisions of the US copyright law at the time the work was originally created; since there have been many changes over the years, it gets complicated very quickly. I'm glad to hear, though, that you know enough about copyright to make the statements you did. Very accurate as far as the current state of the law goes (though duration of copyright for a new work depends on whether the author is a person -- in which case it's the author's lifetime plus 70 years -- a business, and other factors too numerous to go into here). I'm glad you brought up the subject in connection with Mr. Cowan's project. Copyright is something we all need to keep in mind. Hope this was at least somewhat interesting...to someone out there. Claire Libbie Griffin wrote: > > Mr. Cowan, > > Any original work created in the past 75 years (in America) is > automatically protected by copyright! A document does not need to say > "Copyright" nor does anything in particular need to be done with it. I am > no attorney and the whole issue of copyrights is too complicated for me, > but I assure you that what I have said is true. Before you publish that > thesis in any form (including on the internet) you need to find the author > and obtain his/her permission in order to protect yourself from litigation. > > For your own protection, as well as the author's, I urge you to look at the > United States Copyright Office web site at the Library of Congress at: > http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/. There you will find this quote, > "Copyright is secured automatically when the work is created..." > > Libbie Griffin