copyright and latin descriptions

[Thomas G. Lammers]

At 08:42 AM 10-14-98 -0400, Susan Farmer  wrote:

>How are the formal publications of a taxon name with accompanying
>descriptions handled under copyright law?  For instance, what if I
>post the description  to the fictious "Rosa alba" to a mailing list
>on roses.  What about if I publish or distribute a compilation of named
>Rosa species with their original descriptions?

I would assume that they are no different than any other verbage that might
be created.  Most taxon descriptions in recent times are published in a
journal or book to which *someone* (author, commercial publisher, or
professional society) holds copyright in toto.    You could not reprint the
descriptions (or anything else) published there without the copyright
holder's permission.   I doubt that most such copyright holders would refuse
permission for reasonable purposes.

Of course, most of the original descriptions for the world's species are
probably in public domain now, the copyrights on the articles containing
them having long since run out.   Linnaeus, at the very least, would seem to
be in the clear.




Thomas G. Lammers

Classification, Nomenclature, Phylogeny and Biogeography
of the Campanulaceae, s. lat.

Department of Botany
Field Museum of Natural History
Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60605-2496 USA

e-mail:    tlammers at fmnh.org
office:          312-922-9410 ext. 317 (voice-mail)
home:     630-759-4280
fax:                312-427-2530
http:    www.fmnh.org/candr/academic_affairs/collection_report/cv_lammers.htm

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