[plt-scheme] online version of _The Little Schemer_?

From: Stephen De Gabrielle (stephen at degabrielle.name)
Date: Sat Dec 22 15:03:13 EST 2007

I think I can help a little;

The copyright of a 'work' belongs to the creator of the work.  (and
expires 50-70 years after the death of the author)
Unsurprisingly, the copyright owner can assign rights, but not
copyright.  eg freelance writers often offer 'first publishing rights'
within a specified period, allowing them to sell a story, then resell
it again to another publisher.

It is my understanding that copyright cannot be transferred, but the
copyright owner can  assign some or all of their rights. it still
expires 50 to 70 years after their death.

Publishers have copyright of an edition! this is why Project Gutenberg
has to source editions of popular works that are so old.  You don't
see 'penguin' editions of the classics on PG.

I'm pretty sure that the copyright notice on the verso, is for your
information.
My copy of Roget's Thesaurus has  ' English editon Copyright 1988
Ramboro London' , but it wasn't written in 1988.

Does this make sense?

Cheers,

Stephen

PS good on you .. to those authors who retain their rights ... and
share their knowledge freely.  (Shriram!)

On Dec 21, 2007 6:43 AM, Shriram Krishnamurthi <sk at cs.brown.edu> wrote:
> >  curious: why is the copyright for CS books owned by the publisher,
> >  rather than the author(s)?
>
> That's how all contemporary publishing works.  The right question is,
> "Why does ownership of cookbooks seem to reside with the author rather
> than the publisher?"

> Authors who don't like forking ownership over to publishers have
> limited choices.  This is why PLAI is self-published.


--
Stephen De Gabrielle
s.degabrielle at ucl.ac.uk
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