Copyright law of book jacket design
What does the law say about the copyright of book jacket design?
I am the sole librarian and my library owns a certain book. Since I
didn’t like the original jacket, I made my own based on the design by
one Everett Aison from a much older edition. This edition was printed in
the US but by a UK publishing house:
Copyright © 1963 Victor Gollancz, Ltd
Gollancz is now owned by another UK publisher. I wasn’t able to find any
useful information on this Aison fellow.
Would I be breaking any laws if I attached my version to the library
book?
The Third Man
Comments
- dsalo: Just the book jacket you made? Or the entire book?
- The Third Man: Just the book jacket. “My version” refers only to it, and _not_ the
actual book.
- Ashley Nunn: While this is a very interesting question on copyright, it is not about
Libraries or Information Science, and thus is off topic.
- The Third Man: @AshleyNunn I agree that the topic is not strictly about libraries and
information science. However, Stack Exchange doesn’t have a site
dedicated to legal affairs. I figured librarians and library
professionals might be able to shed some light on the copyright law of
books (and cover jackets).
- Joe: It would most likely fall under any other artwork laws. It would seem to
follow the Obama Hope picture
incident,
in that it involved something based on a commissioned work, but he got
got into more trouble for faking
evidence.
- The Third Man: @Joe I guess you’re right. Thanks.
- jonsca: @Jeni I've accepted the edit, but let me discuss with my fellow mods as
to whether we will reopen this.
- jonsca: I think we're going to leave it be for the time being, as even as
presented now, it's more about the copyright aspect than the role of the
librarian or library.