Scanning/digitising magazines

[Peter C]

I have a small collection of old railway magazines (Railway Magazine, Railway Word, and issue 1 of Standard Gauge Times). I am currently digitising them by scanning them in on my printer, and I was wondering if there were any ways (potentially on this forum) in which I could share them as some of them may be of interest. I know that one of them, Railway Magazine, from October 1968, covers the "Fifteen Guinea Special", in detail.
If there isn't any way of me sharing the scans on here, I can provide links to my website.

Thanks.

-Peter

P.S: I know that this topic has had a sub-forum before, but it has been closed and nothing really came of it. I hope that some more people can help here.

EDIT: I won't be sharing them anymore. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm just wondering about the small matter of copyright...?

 

[Peter C]

I'm just wondering about the small matter of copyright...?

I think that, as they are so old, and they are very hard to find, it would be alright for me to send scans to others. It's essentially like me lending everyone my copy, just in a different format.

-Peter

 

[Welly]

Current subscribers to Railway Magazine can access an archive of old Railway Magazines on their website so these have already been scanned.

Having said that I have scanned in old magazines for my use only, just to make space in my house. I have gone to so much trouble that I won't make my files available to others even if it was legal to do so!

 

[Peter C]

Current subscribers to Railway Magazine can access an archive of old Railway Magazines on their website so these have already been scanned.

Having said that I have scanned in old magazines for my use only, just to make space in my house. I have gone to so much trouble that I won't make my files available to others even if it was legal to do so!

Oh OK. Thanks for telling me about Railway Magazine.
I was thinking that, for the more specific magazines or even specific articles, it could be useful for some to have a digital copy. Just something to keep me occupied.

-Peter

 

[jmh59]

I think that, as they are so old, and they are very hard to find, it would be alright for me to send scans to others. It's essentially like me lending everyone my copy, just in a different format.

-Peter

Sadly, no it's not, because you made a copy rather than lending the original.

Copyright lasts for ages after the death of the author and if the author is a company which still exists, or if the copyright has somehow been taken over by someone/thing else it's still live. Dangerous ground if you start sharing regardless of the fact that everyone seems to do it! You also run the risk of copying something which itself is subject to a restricted licence.

Certain websites do get away with sharing copies of magazines, typically because they're in Russia or somewhere else making it difficult for rights owners to chase them.

 

[Peter C]

Sadly, no it's not, because you made a copy rather than lending the original.

Copyright lasts for ages after the death of the author and if the author is a company which still exists, or if the copyright has somehow been taken over by someone/thing else it's still live. Dangerous ground if you start sharing regardless of the fact that everyone seems to do it! You also run the risk of copying something which itself is subject to a restricted licence.

Certain websites do get away with sharing copies of magazines, typically because they're in Russia or somewhere else making it difficult for rights owners to chase them.

Oh OK. Thank you very much for clearing that one up. I won't send them to anyone then.
However, is it different with timetables? DPSimulation, who make Train Simulator content, have a "timetable archive" which uses old timetables. I have a couple old timetables which I could supply to them, or put them up elsewhere. Would that be breaching copyright?

-Peter

 

[Bevan Price]

Oh OK. Thank you very much for clearing that one up. I won't send them to anyone then.
However, is it different with timetables? DPSimulation, who make Train Simulator content, have a "timetable archive" which uses old timetables. I have a couple old timetables which I could supply to them, or put them up elsewhere. Would that be breaching copyright?

-Peter

I am not an expert on copyight law, but I think it will depend on the age of the timetables. I suspect that any pre-BR timetables may now be out of copyright. If they are still in copyright, I assume the software developers would have needed to seek permission from the copyright holders - whoever now has the rights to BR property. (Is it still a residuary organisation, or have the rights been transferred to someone else ??) - and you might also need permission. In practice, they might not care about copying, unless you hope to make a financial gain from the copies.

 

[Peter C]

I am not an expert on copyight law, but I think it will depend on the age of the timetables. I suspect that any pre-BR timetables may now be out of copyright. If they are still in copyright, I assume the software developers would have needed to seek permission from the copyright holders - whoever now has the rights to BR property. (Is it still a residuary organisation, or have the rights been transferred to someone else ??) - and you might also need permission. In practice, they might not care about copying, unless you hope to make a financial gain from the copies.

OK - thanks for the info. I'm not sure what you mean about a "residuary organisation"; please explain.

Cheers,

-Peter

 

[Bevan Price]

OK - thanks for the info. I'm not sure what you mean about a "residuary organisation"; please explain.

Cheers,

-Peter

The organisation(s) that took over what was left of BR after John Major's great sell-off
of Railtrack, freight & passenger services.

 

[Peter C]

The organisation(s) that took over what was left of BR after John Major's great sell-off
of Railtrack, freight & passenger services.

OK. Thanks.

-Peter

 

[dgl]

I would ask the original publishers/authors (if possible) or try to find the current copyright holder and they might give the OK (similar as to what has happend with a load of music technology magazines), but if not then you just have to accept that to them they still have value and they want to keep them esp. as some have already got to great lengths to digitize their back catalogue themselves and want some payback for that.

 

[krus_aragon]

There is a useful chart outlining the limits of copyright in this document.

Note that if the item in question was published by the crown (and comes under Crown Copyright) there is a shorter term, see charts for literary and artistic works. OS maps, for example, are published under crown copyright, and BR publications may come under that banner too (I haven't checked).

 

[Peter C]

There is a useful chart outlining the limits of copyright in this document.

Note that if the item in question was published by the crown (and comes under Crown Copyright) there is a shorter term, see charts for literary and artistic works. OS maps, for example, are published under crown copyright, and BR publications may come under that banner too (I haven't checked).

Thanks very much.

-Peter