Slaughterhouse-Five (first edition) - Kurt Vonnegut
No permission is required for three reasons:
- The photo is a mechanical scan/photocopy of the original cover and does not qualify for independent copyright protection.
- The cover design is likely too simple to qualify for copyright protection, being a simple arrangement of geometric shapes and text, and does not meet the threshold of originality.
- Even if the cover design is deemed original enough to qualify for copyright protection, the entire dust jacket was published without a copyright notice and is ineligible for copyright protection on that basis. More on that below.
Slaughterhouse-Five was first published in 1969. The book itself carried a copyright notice, and 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."
To verify the lack of a copyright notice, high-resolution photos of the rest of the same edition's dust jacket can be seen via Heritage Auctions or Worthpoint.
Keep in mind that the pre-1989 requirements for a copyright notice were highly formalistic and, other than a few enumerated exceptions, required these three elements:
- "The symbol © or the word 'Copyright' or the abbreviation 'Copr.' or an acceptable variant such as "(c)"
- "The year of first publication for the work"; and
- "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."
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Schlachthof 5 oder Der KinderkreuzzugSchlachthof 5 oder Der Kinderkreuzzug, englischer Originaltitel Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, ist ein 1969 erschienener Roman des amerikanischen Schriftstellers Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007). .. weiterlesen