Thursday, April 27, 2006

Copyright on public domain?

While trying out the Google book search I found out that Scholastic Inc. is claiming copyright for.... "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne.
Anyone else finds that something is terribly wrong with this picture, or is it just me?
If I'm not mistaken classics are a public domain and nobody can claim copyright for it.
Perhaps I'll claim copyright for Shakespeare's works, or better still for the Bible. Imagine the revenues from that!

3 comments:

Irina Tsukerman said...

Maybe they are claiming a copyright to the specific *edition* of the work?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That may be not a bad idea re Shakespear and that other stuff. Hmm...

Ow, shacks, word verification again!

Woland said...

Irina: in some cases they state that they copyright only their specific edition with their own editor comments. I can accept that. In this case I didn't find such statement.

Snoop: We are both too late. Someone already did. :)
About the word verification, I don't like it either, but it is a necessary evil.