Hi,
i am currently developing a website that has the goal to promote correct ideas and debunk wrong ones. The site is non commercial. The scope of the site goes beyond Austrian economics but i would like to start by filling it with Austrian knowledge, specifically with the content of "Human Action".
As i am no lawyer, i don't know much about copyright. I have a paper edition of "Human Action" that doesn't mention a copyright and the PDF edition i downloaded from mises.org that has a copyright from 1990. Do i need a permission to publicize the content of “Human Action” on my website? If so, who do I have to ask?
I got an answer from Jeff Tucker, the text of "Human Action" is in the commons.
As Human Action is free online and the Mises Institute is against intellectual property I'd bet that you'd be safe.
"Copyright from 1990" just tells you when the work was published (in that particular form) and who owns the copyright. What matters is the "rights" that are "reserved". Anything the Mises Institute owns the copyright to is released under the CC-BY-3.0 license, which means you are fine to reproduce it, as long as you attribute the work.
Click that link for details.
Good on ya for checking, and for your project
The PDF i have has all rights reserved: "No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means..." The copyright's owner is Bettina Bien Greaves, "published in cooperation with The Foundation for Economic Education". It's the fourth revised edition, i'm assuming that the copyright is only for that edition.
I did copy the PDF from mises.org, but i don't know if they actually hold the copyright to that particular edition. I need an electronic form of the Book, as i'll have to do a lot of copy and paste, and i also need to be sure about the copyright, i expect my work to take at least half a year, i cannot risk it beeing for nothing.
I didn't know the Mises Institute released it's works using the Creative Commons, that's great. I'll have to check if there are any other editions in PFD format for download that have the Mises Institute as copyright holder, thanks for your answers.
Although he's no longer with the Institute, Jeff Tucker would most likely know. Email him here. Let him know what you're up to, or just include a quick sentence or two about your project and a link to this thread.
If you don't hear back from him, others you might try are:
Judy Thommesen - Publications Director
Doug French - President
Mandi Rogers - Librarian / Archivist
Many thanks, i'll try that