Fwd: [WEB4LIB] Book Jacket Images for Library Web Pages - More Info

[Grace Agnew]

Everyone,

 I remember at least one publisher explaining that reproduction rights are
separately negotiated with each cover designer--sometimes residing with the
designer, sometimes with the publisher and that scanning a cover, since it
was a complete reproduction, would have to be negotiated, case by case,
with the rights holder, just as we would have to negotiate with the rights
holder to "republish" a book in its entirety on the web.  To publish a book
entirely without securing the right to do so is a violation of copyright.
Since cover designs are in many cases separately negotiated and separately
copyrighted, reproduction rights to the full cover probably do need to be
negotiated  This is probably why S&S says it will decide each cover on a
case-by-case basis.   Some nonfiction books, particularly, use in-house
designers at the publishing house or on contract, and they are probably
easier to reproduce, but covers produced by a book artist are generally
copyrighted to the artist (and sometimes to the publisher, particularly in
the case of someone new to the field who doesn't know what (s)he is signing
away!).  This is what I believe is happening anyway--once again the
printworld policies and procedures lag behind the digital world technology.
 As publishers get more and more requests, they will realize this is an
issue that needs to be addressed in their contractual arrangements with
cover designers.  Probably the contracts already have an exclusion clause
allowing use of the jacket for publicizing the book, which is how Amazon
gets to reproduce the jacket.  Perhaps the way to approach it is to ask
publishers if their contracts with jacket designers include a reproduction
waiver for publicity and to make the case that publicizing in a library
constitutes legitimate publicity for the book. 

Grace Agnew
Assistant Director for Systems and Technical Services
Georgia Tech Library