Death can be downright disgusting—and fun to read about

A teacher wants to make 85 copies of a book that’s out of print. Its author is P. Gordon B. Stillman, who died in 1995, and the book was originally published in 1972 by the Independent School Press. I can’t find any current contact information for the publisher. Amazon has 10 used copies of the book available for $2.70 apiece. What would you recommend?— Kathleen Krepps, library directorHinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale, IL

Before making copies of the book, you might want to try one more thing—contact the author’s heirs. You can easily find Stillman’s obituary online, and it lists his remaining family members. Because of the length of the author’s copyright—the life of the author, plus 70 years—Stillman (rather than the publisher) still most likely holds the copyright and the rights would have been passed down to his heirs. If you can’t get in touch with his family, I’d buy all of Amazon’s used copies. After you’ve diligently tried all of the above, it’s a reasonable and fair use to make additional copies of the book.

Years ago, our library used a Dictaphone to make recordings for its dial-a-story program. Some of the stories were shortened—or edited—because each cassette will only hold a limited amount of content. Needless to say, most of the tapes are very, very old. I’d like to digitalize them so we can make the recordings available on our website. Have we already broken the copyright law? And if we digitize the recordings and put them online, will we be further breaking the law?— Vincent Solfronk, head, central youth departmentBirmingham Public Library, Birmingham, AL

The dial-a-story program is a public performance, an exclusive right of the copyright holder. Even though only one person at a time hears the story on the phone, many people might eventually hear it over time, which would make it a public performance. In-house library storytelling is also a public performance, but one that’s “tolerated,” because the public benefits outweigh the interests of the rights holder. I think that dial-a-story is also a tolerated use—storytelling promotes both reading and book sales, and a rights holder would have little interest in suing a public library over storytelling. Of course, the risk of liability rises as soon as you allow the stories to be heard on the web. Potentially, even more people will hear the public performance—not just those in your local community, but anywhere.

There are a few things to consider. Are the original stories in the public domain? Anything published before 1923 is fair game, since its copyright has expired. Many titles fell into the public domain between 1923 and March 1, 1989, when the law required copyright holders to register their works and/or place a copyright symbol on them in order to renew their copyright. To see which of these works slipped into the public domain, visit www.librarycopyright.net/digitalslider.

You could also choose to put your recordings of more obscure titles online. That way, you’re selectively choosing those recordings that are least likely to raise a red flag—perhaps recordings of titles that are unique or out of print. I wouldn’t include recordings of popular titles or titles that have commercial recordings that you can purchase. On the other hand, it’s very possible that a rights holder won’t give a hoot about your online storytime, making it another tolerated use. In part, what I’m suggesting is a risk-assessment strategy, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the use is not infringing.

Finally, you could conduct a fair-use assessment for each story that you’d like to digitize. The digitization of some stories is likely to be fair, while others may not be. The second factor of fair use (the nature of the work) would tend to lean toward an unfair determination because stories are fictional in nature—and therefore more worthy of copyright protection. The third factor (the amount of the work used) would also lean toward unfair when the entire story is digitized. The purpose of the use (factor one) is clearly nonprofit and the effect on the work’s market (factor four), depending on the work, is likely nil. If that’s the case, factors one and four are on your side.