Does web posting constitute "publication"

October 6, 2004 @ 8:50amkcoyle says:
The rules for determining the copyright status of a work are different for unpublished and published works, and for works that are unpublished before a certain date and then published. What I'm wondering is if any determination has been made that taking previously unpublished works, such as archival materials, and making them available over the web, constitutes "publication" for purposes of the copyright law. I thought this might be covered in the decision on UCSF and the tobacco papers, but I couldn't glean it from the judge's statement. Clearly part of my concern is that libraries may be changing the copyright status of works through their digital archives. If so, we need to be aware of that.
October 22, 2004 @ 6:15amCOvalle says:
That's a really interesting question. A web page is definitely fixed form, and some materials are only published digitally. I'm pretty sure those works are considered published. I hope someone knows something about this particular question. ^^
November 17, 2004 @ 10:24amTrishaDavis says:
It seems to me that you have indeed created a copyrightable version of the original work. As such, you retain the rights. However, that does not negate the public domain character of the original work.
November 17, 2004 @ 4:34pmCOvalle says:
What if the original work wasn't public domain?
Is posting on the World Wide Web, assuming the library or archive has permission to do so, sufficient to change the work to published status?

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