Yes you are right about Crown Copyright in that if a person employed by the crown produces a work as part of their duties the copyright becomes the crown's but this is one of their conditions of service. The query was about 'commercial' publications not crown ones.
Christopher Hunt
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/06/2007 09:38 >>>
Certainly in the case of anything published by a government body, this is incorrect. As a condition of service, all IPR in work carried out in the course of the work of a person in government service is assigned to the body in question. So, even though authors may be named, they do not retain the copyright. In some cases, the copyright may be Crown Copyright; in others it is copyright the body in question. It is not copyright the author.
Paul
>>> [log in to unmask] 07 June 2007 09:19 >>>
My understanding is
All copying is subject to the current copyright law.
Normally, copyright does not apply
· if the author(s) of the publication (have) been dead for more than 70 years,
· or if there is no author, 70 years after the year of publication
There are some exceptions (students final examinations ...)
I understand Author to be the person responsible for the intellectual effort. I, personally, as a librarian would expect that person to be named in the publication. With a series of maps, of course, the publication is the entire series. However if there is no named 'author' and in the absence of a copyright statement I would normally assume that the copyright of a commercially produced map is the publisher.
Christopher Hunt
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