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Originally Posted by raybo
What do you mean by "in the public domain"? It became "in the public domain" as soon as it was published and distributed, right?
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That is one definition of public domain. The definition I am using is that the original text is no longer afforded copyright protection.
You can't just take a recently published version that has original material added to it -- like a forward. But you can take the original text and add some original material to it and then publish it without having to worry about being in violation of the copyright. Then you can sell the book and keep the proceeds.
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In other words, you're saying that copyright law does not apply in the case of this book? In other words, you're saying that no permission from anyone is needed to copy the original work, verbatim, along with a forward? I'm no copyright lawyer, but somehow I don't see that as being legal.
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You can copy the original book and sell it. If there is newer, original copyrighted material in the book, you cannot copy that new, original copyrightable material without permission.