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Mr X's copyright clarification
OK here is the full clarification on Mr. X's updating of Fort's books:
he also said:
So if anyone has any ideas for what he could add to his site:
http://www.resologist.net
let him know. My main thought was that all of his sources will be out of copyright (like Gould and Pyle) so the next thing to do would be to put them online and link them in from where they are mentioned.
I'd also like a search facility.
Emps
OK here is the full clarification on Mr. X's updating of Fort's books:
I shall simplify as best as I can what is copyrighted with regards to Fort's works and my works related to his writings.
All of Fort's original texts, (his books, short stories, letters, notes,
etc.), are in the Public Domain. The New York Public Library may believe that it has some rights to Fort's notes, but it really doesn't have any such rights. Fort wrote a letter, in 1931, indicating that his notes were to be made freely available for other Forteans to use, after his death. Few libraries are aware of the copyright status of personal papers donated to their collections; thus, it is a good policy to obtain their permission to copy such materials, even if it does belong in the Public Domain.
Who owns "derivative" copyrights to Fort's works?
The several translations of Fort's books into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Swedish are copyrighted, (most by their publishers). With the exception of the German translations, most translations were done using the Holt edition and contain all of its errors. The third edition of the Italian IL LIBRO DEI DANNATI, by Armenia, in Milan, was produced, after my
inquiries into purchase of their rights to this translation and my other offer to help produce a new translation, with corrections. Armenia declined both of my offers and reprinted their second edition, (a reprint of their first edition); but, at least, if a new edition was not produced, Fort is back in print in Italy, (and, not just a rarity in second-hand book shops).
Dover Publications only owns the copyright to Damon Knight's introduction to their edition of THE BOOKS OF CHARLES FORT. Prometheus Books owns the copyright to the book-cover of their edition of THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED. Neither of these two publishers owns any copyright to Fort's texts. In the
case of Dover, the texts were photographed onto new printing plates from the Holt edition; and, Prometheus made a new copy of the text from the Holt edition, (without the index, that it claimed to provide).
The "Fortean Times" editions published by John Brown Publishing have several different claims for copyrights. The introductions and indices are separately copyrighted. I had suggested that the original texts be reset with a standardized format, but my recommendation was apparently not acceptable. I was asked to provide a revised text, (which I had already been working upon
for some twenty years). My revised text corrected many typographical and factual errors in the text, transcribed the text into British spelling, and provided more appropriate titles, (and their abbreviations), to Fort's source references. With a few exceptions, I meddled with almost every page; and,
where some authors would rewrite the original text, I tried to make my corrections around Fort's writing. I don't think that anyone, including Fort, would have an objection to my correcting misspelled names, providing corrected quotes, and fixing errors in the source references. I own the copyrights to these revised texts insofar as they have been revised.
As few people had access to the original editions, I published my hypertext editions on the Internet. These editions contain the first edition texts, (which are in the Public Domain), indications for the original pagination, (so that a standard page number could be cited, rather than pages from numerous other editions), and my footnotes, (a work in progress toward an annotated edition and to which I claim copyright as their author). In the introductions to each book, I stated: "I am making this hypertext edition available with some of my notes... I hope that others may find this a helpful and ready copy for their own reference use. All of the footnotes are the editor's work...."
Neither of the two web-sites which have copied my files into their copies of THE BOOK OF THE DAMNED have acknowledged that my web-site was their source; both have copied my footnotes, (ignoring my copyright notices); and, one claimed copyright to his plagiarized version of my files. If either had only copied Fort's texts, I'd have no complaint; but, their websites infringe upon
my copyrights and fail to acknowledge their source for this material. And, in the case of copying my transcriptions of Fort's letters, no acknowledgment of my web-site as their source was given; and, while no copyright was infringed, this would still be a matter of plagiarism.
Quixote has done nothing wrong by providing a link to another web-site, but I'd recommend providing links to a web-site which provides the source material and can make corrections to typos and other errors.
Some have complained that I should publish the texts for each book, as a whole book, rather than the separate chapters. I plan to do this with an annotated edition, but I can more readily make corrections and update each chapter, rather than each book. The hypertext editions are available for everyone's reference. Chapters download more quickly than books, and browsers can find a search result in a specific chapter, rather than in a whole book. Also, until last year, I did not have access to a program for generating Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files. Now, I do. And, if copies of his online works keep leading back to my web-site, maybe that is because I have done the actual work of making the copies from the books and have been doing the research!
Another set of derivative copyrights to Fort's works that I own are for screenplays adapted from his short stories. I have adapted "Fryhuysen's Colony," "A Floral Hold-Up," and "The Marooned Campers," into short screenplays, which together could become a feature-length "Fortean Trilogy." I have nearly completed a screenplay adaptation of THE OUTCAST MANUFACTURERS, which incorporates part of "How Sentiment Was Discouraged in Sim." Fort once had hoped to write scenarios for films, but I think that there's still some hope to see his work put into cinematic productions.
I hope that clarifies questions about Fort's works and copyrights.
he also said:
About twenty years ago, by the constant pestering of certain officials, I managed to persuade the National Research Council of Canada to transfer the bulk of its old UFO files to the National Archives. Once this was done, I arranged for all of these files to be microfilmed, (something the NRC would not permit, when the files were in their possession). I asked many UFO organizations and individual researchers if they would like to contribute to the costs of this microfilming project, (which was largely being paid for out of my own pocket). Only Stanton Friedman and Gene Duplantier helped me with this effort. Amazingly, many major UFO organizations, (some with thousands of members), couldn't find a dime, or shilling, to spare. Fortean research sometimes just needs a few dedicated individuals to get something done; and, you cannot really count on organizations to help out, (even if that's what they are supposed to do). So, if you want to build up an on-line library of Fortean literature and resources, I've already got a web-site. What links would you want to contribute? Any ideas on how you think it should be
arranged? Just remember, I'm not very interested in commercializing my web-site, (advertising, T-shirts, mugs, etc.), soliciting funds for more organizing activities that accomplish little, and have a lot of other work that needs to get done, (not just talked-about and wished-for projects).
So if anyone has any ideas for what he could add to his site:
http://www.resologist.net
let him know. My main thought was that all of his sources will be out of copyright (like Gould and Pyle) so the next thing to do would be to put them online and link them in from where they are mentioned.
I'd also like a search facility.
Emps