Jump to content

File:To Kill a Mockingbird (first edition cover).jpg

Page contents not supported in other languages.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original file (1,427 × 1,764 pixels, file size: 856 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description First-edition cover of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by the American author Harper Lee.
Date
Source Nate D. Sanders auctions (direct link to jpg). Cropped, retouched.
Author The credit "Jacket design by Shirley Smith" is found on the left jacket flap. (There is very little information online about Shirley Smith; this presents a possible problem for use of the image in countries that do not recognize the rule of the shorter term. It is not known whether Smith is living or dead, which would be needed to measure a copyright term of the author's life plus a set number of years.)
Permission
(Reusing this file)

No permission is required.

  1. First, the photo is a mechanical scan/photocopy of the original cover and does not qualify for independent copyright protection.
  2. Second, the dust jacket was first published prior to 1978 without a valid copyright notice. To Kill a Mockingbird was first published in 1960; the hardcover book itself carried a copyright notice, so its contents remain copyrighted. However, the first-edition dust jacket did not carry a separate copyright notice. According to The Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices: Chapter 2200, § 2207.1(C) at p. 15:
"A notice of copyright on the dust jacket of a book is not an acceptable notice for the book, because the dust jacket is not permanently attached to the book. Likewise, a notice appearing in a book is not an acceptable notice for the dust jacket or any material appearing on that dust jacket, even if the book refers to the jacket or material appearing on the jacket."

Numerous sources can be used to verify the dust jacket's lack of a copyright notice:

And so on.

Keep in mind that the pre-1989 requirements for copyright notice were highly formalistic and, other than a few enumerated exceptions, required these three elements:

  1. "The symbol © or the word 'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.' or an acceptable variant such as "(c)";
  2. "The year of first publication for the work"; and
  3. "The name of the copyright owner, or an abbreviation by which the name can be recognized, or a generally known alternative designation of the owner."
If just one of these elements is omitted, the work is deemed to be published without notice and is not eligible for copyright protection. Neither the year "1960" nor a copyright symbol (or any acceptable variant) appear anywhere on the dust jacket. Credits like "Jacket design by Shirley Smith" do not meet the requirements, nor do the identifications of the publisher and author.

Licensing

This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in the United States between 1929 and 1977, inclusive, without a copyright notice. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart as well as a detailed definition of "publication" for public art.
Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 p.m.a.), Mexico (100 p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.

العربية ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ Nederlands ∙ português ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ ไทย ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.

Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar, {{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current06:05, 29 July 2019Thumbnail for version as of 06:05, 29 July 20191,427 × 1,764 (856 KB)Blz 2049== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description=First-edition cover of ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1960) by the American author Harper Lee. |Source=[https://natedsanders.com/blog/2016/10/to_kill_a_mockingbird_first_edition/ Nate D. Sanders auctions] ([https://natedsanders.com/ItemImages/000024/37248_lg.jpeg direct link to jpg]). Cropped, retouched. |Date=1975 |Author=The credit "Jacket design by Shirley Smith" is found on the left jacket flap. (Th...

The following 4 pages use this file:

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:To_Kill_a_Mockingbird_(first_edition_cover).jpg"