h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A594687

Hi -

I couldn't find anything similar to this anywhere, so here it is - info on a great American poet (something the world needs desperately, you betcha).

I figured including the poems was ok. The copyright info is clearly stated in the final footnote, but I'm not sure if that makes it prominent enough to satisfy...

See what you think. Thanks.

-7rob7

Hi, 7rob7!
It looks as if the moderators are worried about the copyright in your archie and mehitabel entry, since it's hidden when I go and look. I haven't been here long enough myself to know what the procedure is for sorting that out. Anyway, whether you get the same version back up or whether you have to take a bit out, I look forward to seeing it. I love those poems - 'pete the parrot and shakespeare' is my favourite of them all.

Azara

Azara, hi! -

I am up to my neck in the bowels of the moderation help forum even now. [??? Ewwww!!] Will post the status here once I find out what I need to do...



-7rob7

To whom it may concern:

I have attempted again to get this entry acceptable. There is more on the poet and less of the poetry that I'd wanted to emphasize; so I felt I had to change to title.

Thanks for your time.

-7rob7

7rob7, this copyright issue is a bit of a minefield, but if H2G2 is solely concerned with UK copyright law as the Intellectual Property Rights page implies, then all of Marquis' works are out of copyright here, and thus can be included on H2G2. He died in 1937, and under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, the copyright lapsed 50 years after his death in 1987. The act was amended in 1996 and this period was extended to 70 years (which is what H2G2 quotes), however this only applies to anything published after 1996.

However, if the italics wish to comply with US law as well - which they don't have to do - it gets a bit more complicated. The law in the US is that copyright lapses 75 years after the first publication of a work, so you can use anything prior to 1926. While 'archy and mehitabel' and the other collections were published as books after that date, any individual poems from them which appeared in the papers he worked for prior to 1926 are out of copyright. I don't know whether that's the case with 'the song of mehitabel', but 'the big bad wolf' must still be under US copyright as it's about a 1933 film.

Good luck

I give up - entry deleted.

I give up up.

Peta asked me to undelete the entry so she could run it by the suits. I did. We'll see.

(I feel like I'm on one of those 'People's Court' TV shows. Just my luck not to get 'Oprah'...)

-7rob7

Didn't work. It's gone bye-bye. Thanks.

This post has been removed.

So I have to assume it will remain 'deleted'...

Hi, Bossel -

As of right now I still feel obligated to keep it deleted. According to Peta, the copyright guys told her I still had too much quote and not enough 'support' (?) text. (It split out at about 27% quote vs. 73% text.) And I feel very uncomfortable being unable to back up my allegations and recommendations without examples. Particularly when one of the points I was trying to make was how Marquis used the same playwright's structure in his poetry as he did in his plays: hard to illustrate a 'dramatic arc/throughline' when it's all chopped up or bits deleted.

I posted a couple of 'filler' ideas on the relevant thread at the Moderation Help Desk earlier today, but so far no response. (And I've read that Peta is 'out-of-town' for a little while, so I don't expect to hear anytime soon, if at all.) Maybe there is hope that eventually I'll stumble over the magic ratio and be able to include what's left of the good stuff.

Thank you very much for the continued interest. Watch this or my user space...

-7rob7

p.s. - Anyone with a clue as to what the 'moderated' comment above was? Ooo - mystery! This is the first time that's happened in a thread I started - which isn't actually saying a whole lot - and I think I'm flattered. I think. (If it was someone offering some Marquis links, thanks: I think I've seen them all.)

ok, 7rob7, thanks for the explanation


The hidden posting was from ... me. It contained a single word plus a 'sad' smiley. The word was taken from the 'M' chapter of a French dictionary and denotes something which is mentioned in several postings of the thread "The Development of Toilets". ahem...



Bossel

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Peer Review Sin Bin'.

Author has deleted entry for the time being, hence the move to Sin Bin!

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review Sin Bin' to 'Don Marquis' 'archy and mehitabel''.

Back to Entry - article deleted by author.