[OpenGLAM] French Public Domain Advocates calling for the voluntary release of Anne Franck Diary

Thu Oct 8 10:51:49 UTC 2015

Thank you for this email and sharing with us the information on this case.

It might be interesting to collect all simmilar cases in one list and try
to deal with them remembering of other cases - which might help every next
one.

Just a few months ago in Poland we had dealt (legally) with a simmilar
case. You might all be familiar with a heritage and biography of Janusz
Korczak. And you might have all read/ heard the famous story that he went
together with the children from his house for orphanages directly to the
wagon and together with them hand-in-hand to the gas chamber in Treblinka
German Nazi Camp where they have all perished. This has happened DURING
World War2. This is the story that Whole World knows as it was also a motif
taken to several films (read: popculture).
BUT: the legal system in Poland (as simmilar in other countries) was that
legal confirmation of death of person was dated by the date when the Polish
court has issued a ruling that a given person for sure is dead. And if
there were no documents stating such death, the court was interviewing the
witnesses etc. But this all was also only after someone submited a petition
to the court to recognize legally a death of a given person. Thus many of
people who were killed during the Second World War but there were no
documents issued immediatly to confirm their death have as date of death
(the one in documents) that was after the end of World War 2.
The case of Janusz Korczak was precisely this one. Killed in 1942 (the year
which was even mentioned in printed encyclopedias as his date of his death,
but not in his legal documents), but legally acknowledge death only in May
1946 (sic!).
The Modern Poland Foundation <https://nowoczesnapolska.org.pl/about-us/> -
in which I have the honour to preside its advisory & supervisory council -
have taken the case to the court asking for the change of the legally
recognized date of death of Janusz Korczak. After detailed investigation (3
years long) of the case and listening to a few academic specialists the
court ruling was in favour of our request and eventually legally recognized
date of Janusz Korczak is August 7, 1942 - which is a day after he was last
seen by witnesses, when he (together with the children) was embarked by the
Nazis on Umschlagplatz in Warsaw's ghetto to the train departing to
Treblinka death camp.
After the court ruling recognizing his death in 1942, it also mean that all
Korczak's writings are now in PUBLIC DOMAIN! (yuppi! ;) ) we have already
published 8 of them online in our project Free Online Library "Wolne
Lektury": http://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/autor/janusz-korczak/ (and the
most recently published 8th one:
http://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/prawidla-zycia/). You can read those
texts in Polish online and/or download them in .pdf, .epub, mobi, fb2 or
txt format for free.

So as you see, this case is a bit simmilar to the case of Anne Frank, who's
writing is not yet in public domain. But it is something that might be
changed.

If you wish to support our work on editing and publishing online other
public domain texts in digital format, you can find the info on how to do
it in the upper banner on the project's website: http://wolnelektury.pl/

<http://wolnelektury.pl/media/book/txt/korczak-koszalki-opalki.txt>[more
info on this case:
article in english:
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/217654/jewish-doctor-janusz-korczak-died-with-190-childre/
text in Polish:https://nowoczesnapolska.org.pl/?s=korczak]

Also if you would be interested in another project run by our Foundation,
which is the CopyCamp international conference "Understanding the Social
Impacts of Copyright" that is taking place in Warsaw, Poland on 4th of
November this year, we would be very happy to see you :)
 More about this year's edition: http://copycamp.pl/en/

Best regards,
Julia Maria Koszewska

---------------------------------------------------------
Julia Maria Koszewska
http://julia.koszewska.eu/

*From:* open-glam [mailto:open-glam-bounces at lists.okfn.org] *On Behalf
Of *Pierre
> Chrzanowski
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 08, 2015 10:36 AM
> *To:* open-glam at lists.okfn.org
> *Subject:* [OpenGLAM] French Public Domain Advocates calling for the
> voluntary release of Anne Franck Diary
>
>
>
> As this list may know, Anne Franck Diary will not enter PD in 2016 as it
> should according to the general legal framework.
>
>
> http://scinfolex.com/2015/10/07/nous-rendons-le-journal-danne-frank-au-domaine-public-serez-vous-des-notres/
>
>
>
> Anything happening in The Netherlands on this?
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> *Pierre Chrzanowski*
>
>
>
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