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Project:The copyright status of Wittgenstein’s works: Difference between revisions
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<p style="text-align: center; color: #54595d;">The first image is a scan of Wittgensein’s Ms-176,1v (from Wittgenstein Source). The second image is the corresponding WAB XML transcription. The <code><nowiki><del></del></nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki><add></add></nowiki></code> tags, which account for Wittgenstein’s substitution of ''ist'' with ''wird'', can be considered a 1-to-1 substitutions of certain visual features with some conventional markup. On the other hand, the inclusion of a reference to a specific passage in Georg Lichtenberg’s ''Sudelbuch K'', which Wittgenstein does not cite explicitly, can be considered an addition, an interpretation, and a ground for arguing that there is room for originality in the role played by the transcriber.</p> | <p style="text-align: center; color: #54595d;">The first image is a scan of Wittgensein’s Ms-176,1v (from Wittgenstein Source). The second image is the corresponding WAB XML transcription. The <code><nowiki><del></del></nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki><add></add></nowiki></code> tags and their attributes, which account for Wittgenstein’s substitution of ''ist'' with ''wird'', can be considered a 1-to-1 substitutions of certain visual features with some conventional markup. On the other hand, the inclusion of a reference to a specific passage in Georg Lichtenberg’s ''Sudelbuch K'', which Wittgenstein does not cite explicitly, can be considered an addition, an interpretation, and a ground for arguing that there is room for originality in the role played by the transcriber.</p> | ||
=== The authorship issue === | === The authorship issue === | ||
It should be added that, from the point of view of Wittgenstein scholarship, the issue of copyright layers is particularly thorny when it comes to assessing the impact of the editors’ work on the very authorship of a published book. This issue is related to but different from the main issue of this article and will only be briefly touched upon here. | It should be added that, from the point of view of Wittgenstein scholarship, the issue of copyright layers is particularly thorny when it comes to assessing the impact of the editors’ work on the very authorship of a published book. This issue is related to but different from the main issue of this article and will only be briefly touched upon here. | ||
Except for the ''Tractatus'', all of Wittgenstein’s philosophy ''books'' were published posthumously. In some cases, for example that of the ''Philosophical Investigations'', Wittgenstein himself came very close to having the book ready for the printing press; in some others, for example that of ''On Certainty'', he marked a few sections of his notebooks in such a way as to make it clear that they belonged together | Except for the ''Tractatus'', all of Wittgenstein’s philosophy ''books'' were published posthumously. In some cases, for example that of the ''Philosophical Investigations'', Wittgenstein himself came very close to having the book ready for the printing press; in some others, for example that of ''On Certainty'', he marked a few sections of his notebooks in such a way as to make it clear that they belonged together, which, in turn, was taken by the literary executors to be a strong indication that it would make sense to publish them as a standalone work. In such instances, very little room was left for the editors to be original or creative, and it would be difficult to argue that what they did with Wittgenstein’s own writings in order to turn them into books generated a new layer of copyright. | ||
In yet other cases, however, the editors’ intervention was very significant in selecting and sorting Wittgenstein’s remarks while preparing them for publication, so that originality or creativity may be said to have been involved. The best example of this is probably G.H. von Wright’s editing of ''Culture and Value''. In such instances, the editors may have to be considered co-authors, thereby extending the copyright term on a work beyond the 70-year period after Wittgenstein’s death. | In yet other cases, however, the editors’ intervention was very significant in selecting and sorting Wittgenstein’s remarks while preparing them for publication, so that originality or creativity may be said to have been involved. The best example of this is probably G.H. von Wright’s editing of ''Culture and Value''. In such instances, the editors may have to be considered co-authors, thereby extending the copyright term on a work beyond the 70-year period after Wittgenstein’s death. | ||