The copyright holders of Twilight are being especially protective:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070202449.html
Mark
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> From: editor@hardcasecrime.com
> Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2010 13:01:27 +0000
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: paperbacks to poster
>
>
> > I get a get a kick out of publishers, some on this very list,
> > in fact, who claim a copyright to their covers. They obviously
> > didn't check with their lawyers.
> >
> > Jeff
>
> Not sure whether I'm one of the "some on this very list, in fact" you
> meant, but I should be if I'm not.
>
> Check with *your* lawyer: when a painter paints a painting or a
> photographer takes a photo, that work is protected by copyright just as
> much as it is when a writer writes a novel. Now, the protections of
> copyright are not absolute; a copyright holder can't prevent what's
> called "Fair Use," for example, and there's some disagreement about
> where the edges of "Fair Use" fall (as there is about most things in the
> law). But illustrating a book review with a picture of the book being
> reviewed is pretty clearly fair use (even if the review is a negative
> one), as is illustrating an article about an author with images of that
> author's books, and these are just two examples. If you make an iconic
> cover that becomes famous and Mad magazine or National Lampoon creates
> an imitation that looks almost identical but with some comical twists,
> that's parody and is protected under Fair Use.
>
> But there are other examples that would pretty clearly not be Fair Use.
> If, for instance, I buy only North American paperback rights to a given
> book and the author retains hardcover and e-book and foreign language
> rights, and I accordingly only buy the right to use the cover painter's
> work on North American paperback editions, if the author subsequently
> sells hardcover or e-book or foreign language rights to other
> publishers, those other publishers can't reproduce the artist's work on
> the covers of their editions. The artist has retained those rights and
> if the publishers want them they have to contact the artist (and, unless
> the artist is a very nice guy, pay him some money).
>
> If an apparel company decided that they like my covers and created a
> line of clothing that displayed my covers on the front of shirts or the
> backs of hoodies or whatever, I could sue them. Yes, you see people
> doing this with *vintage* covers, but that's either on the theory that
> those covers have fallen out of or were never in copyright (because
> copyright law was different back in the 1930s and 40s than it is today)
> or on the theory that the owners of those copyrights are long dead or
> long out of business and will never take action against a pissant little
> company even if they might have the legal right to do so.
>
> What about a library displaying blow-ups of the covers of books they
> want to highlight to readers? I don't know; that feels okay to me at a
> gut level, but you don't see a JD on my wall and a lawyer might have a
> different opinion. Two laywers might have different opinions from each
> other. But it's definitely not a cut-and-dried "there are no copyrights
> covering book covers, you idiot" case.
>
> Charles
>
> P.S. Kinkos has made blow-ups of paperback covers for me more than once
> without complaining. Yes, sometimes it was of my own books, but they
> didn't ask whether they were my books, so there was no way they could
> have known that. I suspect whether they object or not depends on which
> Kinkos you visit and which clerk you get.
>
> --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer" <jvorzimmer@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Book covers? Book covers are _not_ copyrightable. Period.
> >
> > Even if a book cover has a logo on it, you can argue fair use, if you
> are reproducing an entire cover of which the logo is simply a part.
> >
> > I get a get a kick out of publishers, some on this very list, in fact,
> who claim a copyright to their covers. They obviously didn't check with
> their lawyers.
> >
> > Jeff
> >
> > > Actually, you may find that many printing stores -- especially the
> larger
> > > chains like Kinkos, et al, will not do copies or enlargements of
> book covers
> > > (hardcover or paperback) because of fears of copyright
> infringements.
> > > Because their policy is a blanket one, it doesn't matter if it's
> today's
> > > bestseller or a book from decades ago...they simply won't do it.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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