Phyllis Waddell wrote:

> If I were to write a history-based manuscript upon
> which I would put a copyright, how much material
> or how many paragraphs could I lift from an 1847
> out-of-print book.
An 1847 book would now be in the public domain, and you could copy the
whole thing if you wanted to. If it's a modern re-print you could still use
as much as you want, other than modern comments from the person who
re-published it, which in that case you could only use enough of the modern
comments you needed for your book. If you wanted to use a lot of the modern
comments, you'd need permission from the copyright holder. Using material
from a currently copyrighted item without having to obtain permission,
falls under the "Fair Use" part of the copyright laws.

> And, what if some other person also used the same
> paragraphs from that same out-of-print book in their
> manuscript upon which they also put a copyright.
That's no problem. You can't put a copyright on public domain stuff, you
can only put a copyright on the compiled version of your book, and/or your
own words and how you've arranged the public domain stuff within your book.

Daryl

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