Is it OK to make a free-space page for a source with a copyright?

+5 votes
519 views
Source: https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofedwar00brya

Title pages:

Genealogy of Edward Winslow of the Mayflower and his descendants from 1620 to 1865  (aka, "Genealogy of Edward Winslow")

* by Maria Whitman Bryant daughter of Elizabeth Winslow and (Judge) Kilborn Whitman of Pembroke, Mass.

* Copyright 1915 by Herbert Pelham Bryant All Rights Reserved

* Published by E. Anthony & Sons, Inc printers  New Bedford, Mass. U. S. A.

I added the link to the page I created.
in Policy and Style by Pat Credit G2G6 Pilot (187k points)
edited by Pat Credit

1 Answer

+10 votes
Sure! See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:John_Cary_the_Plymouth_Pilgrim for an example of a Free-Space Page for a similar book.

And note that these books are no longer under copyright, as they were published in the United States before 1923.
by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
Just curious: what is the benefit of such a free-space page?
Pages like the one I cited can help people identify sources and find out where to obtain them. Also, they provide convenient citations for copying into a profile -- and links to other profiles that cite the same source (possibly helpful for finding related people).

That page that I cited is fairly minimal. Such a page also could provide information about the contents of the book, its author, problems with the book's information, or limitations of the content, etc.

I should fully read before answering. Ellen had already made the points I did. Sorry about that.

The other advantages are being able to see all the profiles that use the book as a source and the ability to add notes about errors, missing pages, etc., without having to repeat the info on every profile. See The Campbells Are for an example of that usage.

Thanks Ellen and Debi.
Chase, Using the free-space page for sources that will be used on many profiles helps keep the citations shorter on the profiles and its just a matter of cut and paste whenever you need to cite that source.
I though copyright expired fifty years from publication date.

Under US law, for works created before 1978, the maximum duration is 95 years from the date of publication. So any works published before 1924 are in the public domain. For works created after 1978, the copyright lasts for 70 year after the death of the author. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States

I think you got the 50 years from the pre-1998 copyright law, which was the life of the author + 50 years.

For quite a few years prior to 2019, 1923 was the cutoff year for U.S. works potentially subject to copyright. Works published earlier were in the public domain,  and works published after that typically had to be assumed to be under copyright unless there was evidence to the contrary. Now the 95-year rule is in force.
Thank you for that, yes, it has been extended to 70 years in UK too. I checked with a friend who told me I was living in the past! I moved to Ireland in 1997 and assumed everything was still the same, but she tells me there have been lots of new laws regarding publishing since then.

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