Facsimile reprint

Recently we placed an order for a book from Kessinger Publishing in
Kila, MT for a title listed in Books in Print.  This volume was to be a
replacement for the brittle (1897, published by Macmillan) volume we had
in hand.  A member of our staff phoned Kessinger and was told that the
volume was on acid-free paper, and that it was a "facsimile" reprint.
The cost was a major factor in determining that we would not
preservation photocopy the volume we had in hand.

I inspected the volume upon receipt, and noted that the facsimile lacked
the original frontispiece illustration and that the original title page
and verso had been replaced by a new one indicating a 1992 copyright
date and a copyright restriction notice "all rights reserved..." for
Kessinger as the publisher.  I called to indicate that they had
mis-represented the product in describing it as a facsimile, and that
in fact the quality of reproduction of both text and illustrations was
poor....

    **** Moderator's comments:   I'd love to know the rationale for
    their claim to copyright in a facsimile.  Anyone have any guesses?

Has anyone else had a similar experience with Kessinger or any other
reprint publisher?  Are there others that we need to be wary of?

Thanks,

Karen Mokrzycki
University of California, Santa Cruz
Karen Mokrzycki

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:53
                 Distributed: Saturday, April 10, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-53-012
                                  ***