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 FSI Language Courses Forum : Learning Languages : General Discussion
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Alew
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Quote Alew Replybullet Topic: Question about Copyrights
    Posted: 22 December 2006 at 9:32am
Hi there, everyone!

First, I want to thank everyone who has spent time and money on digitizing and uploading these courses!  They're excellent, and a wealth of knowledge.  Thanks so much!

I have seen FSI courses in stores sometimes, the copyrighted kind, by Barrons or other companies.  What allows these companies to copyright them?  How different are they actually from the originals?  I ask this just out of curiosity; it seems to me you wouldn't be able to copyright government materials, then sell them.  I'm sure they've modified something, but what?  According to the platiquemos website, most of these vendors (copyright holders) sell the same basic spanish course, and that Platiquemos is the only "really different" one.  And even Platiquemos is pretty close to Basic Spanish, right?

Just wondering, and thanks again to all contributors and especially to gdfellow!

Alex
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onebir
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Quote onebir Replybullet Posted: 22 December 2006 at 10:37am
There was a long thread discussing the issue on this forum, but it's been deleted.  There's some discussion on the bottom half of this page that might clarify things for you a bit:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=43&PN=0&TPN=3
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Alew
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Quote Alew Replybullet Posted: 22 December 2006 at 11:04am
Thanks for the link!  Definitely clears things up.

Thanks,
Alex

PS:  Suppose they had not copyrighted their "redone" courses:  could they still sell the FSI ones, or does FSI retain that right?


Edited by Alew - 22 December 2006 at 11:07am
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 01 January 2007 at 6:21pm
IANAL, but since the works are in the public domain (at least in the US and Europe), anyone can do anything they want with them, including charging money.

See the Analysis section of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dastar_v._Twentieth_Century_Fox


Note:
The works are probably still copyrighted in countries that do not follow the "rule of the shorter term" see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain

Some countries do not follow this rule. For example, the Chinese copyright law makes no public domain exception for artist or scientific works produced by the government.  Nor does it mention the "shorter term" rule.  In theory, the Foreign Service Institute could claim a copyright there. Just because a work is in the public domain of the originating country, it does not mean that it is in the public domain in another country.

(BTW, I realize just because something is written in Wikipedia does not make it true. But it's a good starting point)
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