Okay, I’m transcribing a book written in the 1880s into electronic form since it’s not readily available in any format, and the format that it is available in is a crappy photocopy of the 1948 edition of the book. There’s lots of illustrations that are critical to understanding points that the text makes, which are not always clear in the photocopies, and my scanner’s about shot, so if I scan the images, I have to do massive amounts of work on them to clean them up. I don’t have the money to buy a new scanner or buy the rights to any images that might be for sale. (I’m not planning on selling copies of the work when I’m done with it. I’m just going to convert it into a PDF file and make it available for downloading on a website.) And unless I can find a sucker–er, volunteer, willing to draw/scan/clean up the images, I’m SOL.
While I realize that the odds are against it, I’m hoping that somewhere on the net, I can find public-domain versions of the illustrations that I need. Some of the examples of the illustrations in the text are as follows:
A representation of a sacred tree with attendant cherubim from an Assyrian cylinder.
An illustration by Montfaucon of pagan sculptures.
Hercules carrying two pillars on his shoulders.
Gorio’s rendering of Hercules in conflict with the lion.
A representation of the Indian Avatar of Vishnu coming forth from a fish.
Copyright –
Just so we’re clear distributing an unauthorized copy, even for free, can land you in doo-doo as far as copyright infringement goes. It makes no difference if you photocopy it, scan it or transcribe it by hand, if someone control the copyright, you can be liable for infringment. For books that have been out of print for a really long time, and that won’t be reprinted in the forseeable future, you can sometimes contact the owner of the publishing rights and get permission to reproduce and distribute copies if it’s for educational purposes.
I had a prof who was able to secure such an arrangment for a text he felt was crucial to his class. They allowed him to photocopy it for all the students.
Royalty Free Photographs and Clipart —
There are a lot of free sites, but they usually have cruddy low res images. You may be better of starting out at a software store that carries image libraries on CD ROMs. Many of the companies of the CD ROM libraries have websites where you can preview some of the images. (Hence, go to the software store, see who makes the CD ROMs and then see if you can find out what they’ve got.)
I hate buying image libraries without a good idea of what they’ve got.
Prices vary. Some collections are cheap and affordable (and usually suck) other are exhorbitant, but of better quality.
A lot of exhaustive clipart libraries also have photos. HOWEVER, if you’re looking for photographs of very specific artifacts or drawings, you may be SOL. The libraries tend be very, very general.
If you expect release less than 10,000 authorized copies of the book (ahem), you would be surpirsed at how affordable licencing an image can be. I’d recommend seeing if any of the original images are available. If they’ve been long forgotten or are past their due date they may be cheap to licence or already in the public domain.
So first place to start: Google “royalty free photographs”. I’ll take a look at work tomorrow. There is one company that has excellent collections of historical photos and keep sending us thick books to entice us. (The books are free but you have to pay to licence the photos they contain).
Charmian, I’ve slapped up a scan from the book here (Warning: Angelfire site!). As you can see, it’s a pretty simplistic line drawing, marred by the defects in my scanner. The original artwork for the book is all in this style, for the most part. Some of it is more detailed, however. I’m not planning on printing up any books, as I simply don’t have the cash for anything like that, no matter how cheap it may be. This is the proverbial labor of love.
You’re better off finding a working scanner; maybe a local school or library, or even this board. (Somebody here must be nearby!) I’ll volunteer to scan if nobody else will, but that would mean postage and delay.
And just to keep on with what I’ve mentioned elsewhere, these old texts can be donated to Project Gutenberg, with proofreading help here .
rjk, I’ve got no problem with donating it to Gutenberg, but they only want ascii files, and I don’t know of any way of getting the images into ascii files, and they are rather important to the text. (without the images, vast portions of the later chapters will make no sense, whatsoever).
Tuckerfan:
How many pictures are you talking about?
I’m curious because if they are all similar to the style you posted on your anglefire site, it would be easy to re-draw them.
I’m currently drawing a coloring book in the Muskogee language, and would love to help out if its not too daunting a task
Actually, I’d love to help out even if it is a daunting task, I just couldn’t promise that it would get done quickly!
Have you got any more scans of some of the more detailed pics?
Let me know!
Jet
Watch out for the royalty free trap.
AFAIK (and somone, please correct me if I am wrong), but royalty-free != free. It just means you don’t have to pay for each usage of them. That once you have purchased usage rights of the image, you can use it wherever and whenever you want (within the limits of the companys royalty free agreement)
Uh, no, that won’t work, because I’d have to spend literally hours sifting through those images to find the exact one I need, and even then I might not be able to use it, due to copyright restrictions. If it’s a photograph of a painting, then the photo can be copyrighted, even though the painting is public domain.
As for all images before 1923 being public domain, I seriously doubt that. If the creator of the work rigorously renewed their copyrights through out the years and managed to live until the mid-70s when copyright was extended to life +50 years for those works still covered under copyright, then it’s entirely possible that the work is still copyrighted.
I’m confused. You make the above claim and your website says, “Currently, the only printed version of T.W. Doane’s “Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions” is available from these folks. Be warned that it is expensive and is only a photocopy of the 1948 edition! This company has a reputation for publishing hard to find works (at low cost), and will respond to customer requests to reprint a work that is currently out of print. Please ask them to reprint this work.”
How do you come about your information?
A quick google search located a paperback version (apparently not a photocopy) here. And it’s even available at amazon.com – again, not a photocopy, but an actual book (Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions - 1882 by Thomas William Doane. Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours). Sure, it’s $36.00, but it’s hardly unavailable to those who’d like to read it. And since it’s still in print, I’d be very careful about putting the full text on the web. I’d recommend contacting the current publisher: Kessinger Publishing Company; ISBN: 1564599221; (March 1997) with regard to copyrights.
Hmm… When I did a search on Amazon, I only came across the Health Research photocopy version of the book, not the other one. So there’s two versions of it being published, apparently. The Health Research edition clocks in at a few dollars less. The version you link to is an offset of the photocopy version which I have. Given that there’s two different versions put out by two different publishers, it seems obvious to me that the work is public domain and thus there’s no worries about copyright. (I’ve also ran this idea past folks who have to deal with copyright laws daily and none of them seemed to think that there was any problem with it at all.)
Oh, and by expensive I meant that if you’ve got to pay $30+ for a book, one should expect that it’s not simply a photocopy held together with a spiral bind. (I didn’t pay that much for mine when I got it about ten years ago. It was about half that.) Additionally, if Dover brings out an edition, it’ll be more likely to be widely available and it’ll have a lower cost. (I’ve got one of their algebra text books that’s just under a thousand pages and it comes in under $20.)
Despite what people who ought to know better have told you here, an actual 1882 book and all images contained within it are in fact the public domain. A quick review of US Copyright law would have told people this.
However - if there is substantial editorial change to the original text, or there is a foreward, introduction, afterward, glossary, annotation, footnotes, bibliography, suggested readings, additional pictures, colorization or substantial modification of original pictures, or other work added by a new author and/or publisher at a later time, this can be construed as making the book a “new” work as of the time of printing, and thus parts of the book could be said to be under copyright. And as a result, copying the entire book could open you to liability under copyright law. New cover, dust jacket, and splash page art and text can also fall under the category of a “new” work.
But there’s a lot of “if’s” and “could’s” in copyright law. Sometimes it’s even absolute bullshit. The people over at Project Gutenberg have a lot of info on the legalities and do’s and don’t’s of taking old works and making them into electronic texts - you might search their site too for help.
Well, there’s nothing in the book that appears to be have been inserted at anytime past the third edition (my copy’s a seventh) and the last copyright notice is dated 1910.
