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Is the dictionary that he wrote still in copyright, or has it entered the public domain? If not, who owns the rights to it?

unforgettableidSupportsMonica
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not a Torah question but a legal one. – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 06:08
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    @ShmuelBrin, this is a close one, but given sufficient motivation, it could be on topic. I'm going with leaving open because the most obvious motivation for the question is the desire to publish a new version (electronic or in print), which in the case of this dictionary is Judaism motivated. – Yishai Jun 09 '15 at 18:29
  • @Yishai The Halachic question is a dup. The legal question is off topic. – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 20:02
  • @ShmuelBrin, a dupe of what? – Yishai Jun 09 '15 at 20:11
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    @ShmuelBrin, this is not a legal question, best addressed to a lawyer; it's a Jastrow Dictionary question, best addressed to someone who knows about the Jastrow Dictionary. Given that this is a volume used pretty much exclusively in the study of Judaism, it's fair to expect that experts on Judaism would know something about it. – Isaac Moses Jun 09 '15 at 20:27
  • @Yishai Is there halachic copyright. We have a few of those around – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 21:18
  • @IsaacMoses It's a legal question revolving around a Sefer. You can't answer this by knowing the Jastrow. You can by knowing the law. Try replacing Jastrow with another book from 1903 and the answers would be identical. – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 21:23
  • @ShmuelBrin, replace a ram's head with a boars head and this question would be identical. But one is on topic and the other isn't. – Yishai Jun 09 '15 at 21:30
  • @Yishai http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/45696/how-do-you-prepare-a-rams-head-for-rosh-hashana-night#comment121270_45696 – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 22:25
  • I wouldn't mind if someone were to ask this on Meta – ertert3terte Jun 09 '15 at 22:26
  • @ShmuelBrin, this question is featured on meta as an in scope question - and it is about medical science. – Yishai Jun 10 '15 at 21:32

1 Answers1

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I believe it's been out of copyright for a while. You can access the whole book online here: http://www.tyndalearchive.com/TABS/Jastrow/

It's also available on Google Books, though I only found Vol. 2 there.

Vol 1 and Vol 2 are available on Hebrewbooks.org.

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    I'm not so sure about that. The edition I have (Judaica Press, 1989) carries a copyright of theirs from 1971 (even though the original was published in 1903 and should surely have expired by then). – Alex Sep 06 '10 at 02:08
  • It should be that that contents are out of copyright, but the layout(the way the specific pages look) is still under copyright, but the most recent publishers. – Rabbi Michael Tzadok Sep 06 '10 at 12:41
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    The 1989 (and 1971, I guess) editions are facsimiles of the 1903 one. So there's no new layout to be copyrighted. – Alex Sep 06 '10 at 17:26
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    @Alex, Sometimes booksellers/publishers will try to assert copyright when they have none. – Seth J Feb 27 '12 at 19:46