English: Cover design from the first-edition dust jacket of the 1984 short story collection Slow Learner by the American author Thomas Pynchon. Published by Little, Brown.
Date
Source
English: Scan via Heritage Auctions. Cropped from the original image.
Author
English: From inside left jacket flap: "Jacket design by Fred Marcellino". For jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works and instead base copyright term on the date of the author's death, Marcellino lived from 1939–2001.
English: No permission is required for two reasons:
First, the image is a mechanical scan that does not constitute a work of original authorship in and of itself (i.e., it is a faithful reproduction of the cover itself without modification).
Second, the dust jacket passed into the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1978–1989 without a valid copyright notice, and it was not subsequently registered with the US Copyright Office within five years of publication.
Slow Learner was published in 1984; the hardcover book itself carried a copyright notice, so its contents remain copyrighted. However, dust jackets were required to carry a separate copyright notice for independent protection of their design. 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."
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:
"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. The dust jacket did not include a valid notice with all of these elements.
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:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1978 and March 1, 1989 without a copyright notice, and its copyright was not subsequently registered with the U.S. Copyright Office within 5 years.
Unless its author has been dead for several years, it is copyrighted in the countries or areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada (70 pma), Mainland China (50 pma, not Hong Kong or Macau), Germany (70 pma), Mexico (100 pma), Switzerland (70 pma), and other countries with individual treaties. See this page for further explanation.
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.
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== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |Description={{en|1=Cover design from the first-edition dust jacket of the 1984 short story collection ''Slow Learner'' by the American author Thomas Pynchon. Published by Little, Brown.}} |Source={{en|1=Scan via [https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/literature-1900-up/thomas-pynchon-slow-learner-early-stories-boston-toronto-little-brown-and-company-/a/6085-36186.s Heritage Auctions]. C...