SC - Trenchers Oh my!

[Liam Fisher]

Thanks a lot for the information. I have two additional questions, re
use of printed editions and international online publication:

(1) Status of printed editions
According to German law, the _text_ of printed _editions_ of old texts
is protected for 25 years from date of publication even if the text is
medieval or early modern (§70 or 71 of our Urheberrecht, I think; the
notes etc. are protected for a longer time). Is there such a proviso in
your law, too? If not, someone could put, e.g., the text of "Diversa
servicia" from the "Curye on Inglysh"-edition (Oxford 1985) online
without any violation of copyright. I cannot imagine this is possible.

(2) International matters
Online-publication on the web is an international matter. But whose laws
apply? E.g., if someone wants to make available online a medieval
collection of recipes say published in Kopenhagen in 1920, the webserver
is in Germany, the clients downloading the stuff are all over the world,
in Africa, in America, in Asia, ... Whose laws apply? Must I first study
all the world's copyright laws? Is there a way to _make sure_ that some
online publication is not against some law somewhere in the world?

Thomas
(who hopes that texts and dictionaries will be accessible online for
everybody and for free in the near future)