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Happiness
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Quote Happiness Replybullet Topic: FSI Igbo PDF and MP3s
    Posted: 17 October 2007 at 4:03am
I have the FSI Igbo PDF and MP3s. Is it legal for me to donate them to this site? If it is, then I will do so. I look forward to hearing from you about this.
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onebir
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Quote onebir Replybullet Posted: 13 November 2007 at 8:03pm
(Since no one else has answered...)

It depends on where you got the PDF and MP3.  If they're digitised from original copies, direct from the US government, the site owner should be prepared to host them here (assuming he's sure about this).  If they're from a reseller (eg audioforum, multilingual books), they may be subject to copyright and won't be accepted.

If you don't know which is the case, have a look at the first few pages of the pdf - if there's no copyright notice, but there is a US govt printing office (or similar) seal, the PDF should be acceptable.  Similarly, the MP3s shouldn't have a spoken copyright notice (or anything about copyright in their ID3 tags etc) & shouldn't have parts that were clearly recorded at a later date (which could indicate 'value added' by a reseller who could claim copyright)

I'm not the site owner, but I think this is broadly the kind of approach he'd take...
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 16 November 2007 at 9:15pm
Here is how I understand it.

It's legal to post text and audio material on a US based web site if it is in the US public domain.
It is permitted to post text and audio material on this web site if it is in the US public domain AND published by a US government organization (i.e. US Government Printing Office, NTIS (National Technical Information Service), etc).

Establishing the latter is easy. I always include images of the book covers which usually have a Government Depository Library date stamp as well as images of the tapes.

Positively establishing public domain is a little more difficult.  I'll use the Igbo books and tapes as an example of how I do it. Since I am not a lawyer, the following is presented for novelty value only:

Cornell has an excellent web page describing what is and is not in the public domain

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/public_domain/

Also see the following web page which gives the history of US Copyright statutes

http://aw.copyrightdata.com/index.php


For the FSI books, there are 3 possible reasons for being in the public domain

1. The work (published or not) was created  by a US government employee as part of that person's official duties (Fed Copyright Stat 17.105).
2. The published work was created before 1 March 1989 with out a copyright notice indicating registration with the copyright office.
3. The published work was properly registered with the before 1964 but the copyright owner did not renew the copyright after 28 years.

Also, all non-US material must have been in the public domain of the country of creation as of 1 Jan 1996.

Example:
The preface on page 3 of the Igbo Basic Course states "The course was prepared by Lloyd B. Swift, Acting Head of the Department of Near East and African Languages, with the assistance of Amako Ahaghotu and Chidiadi Ugorji, Language Instructors."  No other author is listed on the book, so this seems to meet reason #1.

But perhaps the listed instructors were not actual employees of the government, but rather they were private contractors. Examination of page 2 indicates that the book was available from the government printing office for $2.25; thus it was "published". Examination of the title page of this 1962 work does not reveal a copyright notice.  Therefore reason #2 is also met.  Since this is a pre-1964 work, we can also see if the title or authors are listed with the copyright office 28 years later (1990).  The copyright office has an on-line search page for any registrations after 1 Jan 1978.  Neither the authors or book title are listed. Therefore reason #3 is met.

http://www.copyright.gov/records/

Unfortunately, registration records for works created between 1 Jan 1964 and 1 Jan 1989 are not available online.  Most of the FSI books are from this time period.  In order to establish reason #3, you need to look at the "Catalog of Copyright Entries".  These are huge books with tissue thin pages listing all the copyright registrations for a given year and should be available in at large university libraries. Even though reason #1 may be met, I always always look up the authors and titles in the CCE.  The Igbo Basic book was not listed in the CCE. I check the published year as well as the year before and after for EVERY book I submit to the site. Yes...I am very very careful.


SOUND RECORDINGS

Is the Igbo Basic sound recording in the public domain? Probably.
Prior to 15 Feb 1972, all sound recordings were in the US Federal public domain.  Copyright was covered under state copyright and unfair-competition laws as well as "common law".

See Section 3 of the following web page

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub135/contents.html

Since the laws vary from state to state, one must be very careful. Here is my reasoning for pre-1972 FSI audio works sold by NTIS being outside of state copyright laws:

1. The 1976 copyright act added the clarification that all works created by public employees as part of their work are not eligible for copyright.
2. The preface of most FSI books state that the tapes were mastered at the FSI audio lab.
3. The NTIS web pages state that the tapes they sell are created from digitized copies the original FSI master tapes.
4. The US Constitution Supremacy Clause (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy_Clause) states that federal law trumps any state law.

Based on 1 and 4, a state can not assert that government created works are covered under state copyright.  Items 2 and 3 show that the material sold by NTIS was a work created by the government.  Thus the audio tapes are in the US and US state public domain.

I definitely would NEVER use any audio tapes from a non-government reseller.  Since these resellers have their own "master" tapes, one could run afoul of state unfair competition laws.

Audio created after 1 Feb 1972 is covered under federal copyright law.  There are separate sound recording registration CCE books.  For example, I verified that neither the French Basic or French Phonology sound recording are listed in the books and therefore are in the public domain.

Edited by DemiPuppet - 16 November 2007 at 9:17pm
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