no can answer questions that aren't there, so for the purposes of our collective brow raising:
We're discussing The Professor and the Madman in our
> Intellectual Property Law Class and I was just
> wondering if you could help us clear some of the
> issues enumerated below:
>
> 1) For purposes of copyright, is the OED an original
> or a derivative work?
>
> 2) If it is derivative work, is the OED considered as
> an infringing work IF the publishing house and say,
> Dr. Murray or Mr. Simpson FAILS to obtain the prior
> consent of the authors of the reference materials for
> the use of their respective works?
>
> 3) Who may be treated as AUTHORS of the OED? Sir
> Murray? Dr. Minor? The thousands of contributors? Or
> the Oxford Publishing House itself? All of the
> mentioned? And why should he or she (or it) be treated
> as authors or co-authors?
>
> 4) If only one or some of the above-mentioned are
> treated as authors or co-authors, must such author or
> co-authors or OPH acknowledge the contributions of the
> co-authors?
>
> 5) Should such acknowledgement, if given, be linked to
> the co-authors' individual contributions?
>
> 6) Are the methodology and presentation and
> arrangement of the word definitions
> copyright-protected elements of the OED?
>
> 7) Will there be infringement if such arrangement or
> methodology is copied?
>
> 8) Will there be different legal treatments arising
> from publishing and distributing copyright works in
> PRINTED COPIES or from MAKING THEM AVAILABLE ONLINE?
> Who should bear the liability for these? The authors?
> the Contributors? the OPH? the website operator? any
> of them or all of them? If only some of them, can they
> be considered direct or merely contributory
> infringers?
> How then should liability be apportioned?
>
> 9) If the OED is copyright protected work, will the
> protection for the REVISED and UPDATED version INCLUDE
> portions of the first edition that are carried into
> the latest edition considering that the first edition
> has been published more than a century ago?
>
> 10) If such portions of the first edition are no
> longer protected, can anyone copy without infringement
> liability those portions as part of a new dictionary
> competing with the latest OED edition?
>
> We would appreciate your response. It would certainly
> help facilitate our coming group discussions.
>
> Thank you,