I don't have a law degree, but I have dealt with copyright in various editorial capacities. When I edited the Rock Garden Quarterly (NARGS bulletin), I sent authors a letter specifying that they would retain copyright to their text and photographs; the NARGS held the copyright to the "compilation," that is, the entirety of the journal as it was published. This prohibited anyone from copying an entire issue of the journal, but anyone who wanted to reprint an article or a significant extract from one, or any of the individual photos, would have to get permission from the individual author. The same is true of the content of the PBS wiki, and this presents some problems when someone dutifully asks for permission to use a photo, and we can no longer contact whoever posted it. I don't know whether the IBS as a corporation and publisher did the same with Plant Life and its successor Herbertia, and I don't know exactly how to find out. The doctrine of fair use was formulated to allow the reproduction of reasonable portions of a published work in the form of brief quotations (there is a word limit) or, importantly in recent decades, the provision of photocopies of individual papers or book chapters for students to read as classroom assignments. In the latter case, the reprints could not be sold. In regard to Plant Life/Herbertia, one should note that one longtime editor, a Professor Traub, insisted on retaining the name Amaryllis after the American species had been transferred to Hippeastrum, so present-day readers should understand this if they read older volumes of the journal or search for information on Hippeastrum. This topic is addressed critically in the forthcoming PBS-sponsored monograph "The genus Hippeastrum (Amaryllidaceae) in Bolivia" by R. F. Lara Rico. Jane McGary, Portland, Oregon, USA On 3/13/2021 10:16 PM, Michael Mace via pbs wrote: > Does this constitute fair use? > I think for fair use to apply, the material would need to be under > copyright. The IBS's nonprofit status has been revoked due to failure to > file, in which case its assets are supposed to be transferred to another > nonprofit or the government (according to information I found online). But > who owned the copyright on those journals in the first place, the IBS or the > authors? I wrote an article for Herbertia, and never assigned my copyright > to them. So my opinion is...I don't have a clue. Does anyone on this list > have a law degree? > > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>