On 11/24/2015 6:58 AM, clipka wrote:
> Am 24.11.2015 um 02:31 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>
>> I may just use those instead. But are they copyrighted?
>
>
> (Disclaimer: IANAL. No guarantee for the correctness of the following
> statements.)
>
>
> If you want data free of copyright issues, look at the following papers:
>
> http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/31/jresv31n2p55_A1b.pdf
> http://www.rit-mcsl.org/MunsellRenotation/MunsellRe-renotations.pdf
>
> Both papers, published in the U.S. in 1943 and 1969 respectively, don't
> carry any copyright notice, so according to
> https://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm they should be
> in the public domain (first published in the U.S., in the years
> 1923-1977, without a copyright notice).
>
> Note that the 1943 paper probably describes the original, non-renotated
> Munsell colours, while the 1969 paper describes a different re-notation,
> so neither matches the commonly used renotated Munsell colours.
>
>
> Having said that, it also seems worth taking a closer look at the 1943
> renotation article's copyright status:
>
> Titled "Final Report of the O.S.A. Subcommittee on the Spacing of the
> Munsell Colors", and published in the "Journal of the Optical Society of
> America" in 1943, the OSA Publishing claims it to be (C) 1943 Optical
> Society of America, so I presume there's a copyright notice in the paper
> itself.
>
> However, copyrights to works first published in the U.S. in the years
> 1923 to 1963 have all expired after 28 years, *if* they haven't been
> explicitly renewed in their 28th year; renewal is only possible through
> registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. Thus, for the 1943's
> paper's copyright to still be valid, it would have to have been
> registered for renewal somewhere between 1970 and 1971, and should thus
> appear in the Copyright Office's official archives for those years, or
> 1972 the latest.
>
> Now guess what: Having had a quick look at scans of the 1970-1972
> archives, it seems that neither the "Journal of the Optical Society of
> America" in general, nor the article "Final Report of the O.S.A.
> Subcommittee on the Spacing of the Munsell Colors", have been registered
> for copyright renewal in those years.
>
> Thus, if my observations are correct, then the 1943 renotation paper is
> in the public domain by now, too.
>
>
> This would also have implications for the data files: Insofar as they
> are compilations of xyY colour coordinates from the 1943 renotation
> paper, their contents should be free for re-distribution in different
> formats (such as a POV-Ray include file), as -- quoting from the U.S.
> Copyright Office's publucation at http://copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf:
>
> "The copyright in a compilation of data extends only to the
> selection, coordination or arrangement of the materials or
> data, but not to the data itself."
>
> Note however that it would be prudent to verify that the data in the
> files is in fact identical to the data in the paper, and doesn't contain
> any additional data points. Unfortunately, as mentioned already, the
> 1943 renotation paper is closely guarded and doesn't appear to be
> available for free anywhere, so that would mean you'd have to buy the
> paper first.
>

I think the simpler answer is to discontinue this project and remove my 
image from Wikipedia and the Object Collection.


Mike

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