HES: Re: DISC--Scholarship and Copyright

[Laurent GUERBY]

Alvey, James wrote:
> ----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
> When I was nearing the end of my work on my book on Smith (Ashgate
> 2003), I wrote to OUP and requested copyright clearance.  I did
> include a fairly precise word count of quotations from the Glasgow
> edition of "The Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith" and the total
> words quoted from the various volumes was a little over 16,000 words.
>
> OUP gave me approval to use the quotations subject to 1) precise
> acknowledgement of the OUP and the Glasgow edition in the
> acknowledgment pages and 2) the payment of what I took to be an
> extraordinary fee (985 pounds sterling).  I later requested a
> reconsideration of the fee on two grounds: the poor pay of academics
> and the limited expected sales of my book.  The reply indicated that
> the fee would remain unchanged because the funds were to be paid to
> the beneficiary of the estate of Smith.  I then dropped the matter and
> paid the fee out of my own savings.


Reminds me of Jean-Marie Tremblay canadian website "Les Classiques des
Sciences Sociales" which was sued by a french editor for publishing
online public domain works:

http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/

http://www.transfert.net/a8674
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2003/06/in-canada-copyrights-extend-50-years.html

Since Jean-Marie Tremblay fought back the french editor backed away.

Short Victor Hugo citation:

« Le livre, comme livre, appartient à l'auteur, mais comme pensée, il
appartient - le mot n'est pas trop vaste - au genre humain. Toutes les
intelligences y ont droit. Si l'un des deux droits, le droit de
l'écrivain et le droit de l'esprit humain, devait être sacrifié, ce
serait, certes, le droit de l'écrivain, car l'intérêt public est notre
préoccupation unique, et tous, je le déclare, doivent passer avant nous
»

Laurent GUERBY