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Copyright Question: Does Making Material Available to the Public Constitute Publication?



The Christian Science Church is about to open "The Mary Baker Eddy
Library for the Betterment of Humanity"  which will make the
unpublished manuscripts of Mary Baker Eddy available to the public.
Looking at several articles about the new library published in the
March 2002 issue of the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL, it appears that
the Christian Science Church is assuming that making those
unpublished materials available is equivalent to publication, and
will extend the Church's copyright:

p. 31) "as copyright holder, the Board has the sole right to extend
the copyright on Mrs. Eddy's previously unpublished writings by
making copies of them available to the public before the end of this
calendar yeaqr through publication in print OR BY PLACING THEM IN A
LIBRARY OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. [emphasis added]

p. 23) "... publication can be accomplished either by printing and
distributing books or by making previously unpublished material
available without restriction in a library open to the public."

As I understand it, the writers of the above believe that by opening
previously unavailable material to the public, they will be able to
extend the copyright protection to the year 2047.

I'm not a copyright expert but I don't follow the logic of the above.
Can anyone help clarify this for me?

Another article claims:

31) "As copyright holder, the church has the legal right of access to
the physical documents it does not own for the purpose of
photocopying."

I've always assumed that the owner of the physical property has the
right to show or not show a document and that the owner of the
intellectual property (the copyright) has no special access to the
physical property.

Chris Densmore

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