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The book is On growth and forms by D'arcy Thompson. It was published in 1942 and Thompson died in 1948. Wikipedia uses the image citing public domain. Can I use extracts and images from the book with proper citation without problem?

The image I want is on this page: https://archive.org/details/ongrowthform1917thom/page/322

As you can see the book is in public domain and is freely available on archive.org

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  • Are the images by Thompson or by somebody else?
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:24
  • the image has caption and in bracket says (After Rhumbler), I am not sure if it is by Thompson himself. You can check the image with link above.
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:26
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    You can contact the publisher of the book directly as well. Appears published by Cambridge University Press and they have a nice website that lists contacts cambridge.org/rights/permissions
    – Compass
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:40
  • I contacted them and did not hear back.
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 19:53
  • I think this should be asked on the Law Stack Exchange instead.
    – Allure
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 22:42

2 Answers 2

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It depends on whether or not the book is in the public domain in your specific country. In some countries, copyright extends to some amount of time after the death of the author, for example 50 years. However, your country's copyright laws may be different.

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    I am in Germany and from the wikipedia it says EU law is life + 70 years, so it would be valid in this case as 1948+70 would be 2018.
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:13
  • so would this mean I can use the image without any permission?
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:21
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    It also depends on whether the someone else renewed the copyright. However, since it is available on Project Gutenberg, I think you are OK. Reality: I am not a lawyer, though, so be careful. gutenberg.org/ebooks/55264
    – Michael Stachowsky
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:27
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    I cannot access gutenberg in Germany, oh the irony. The book is also available in archive.org archive.org/details/ongrowthform1917thom/page/322 I also dont know whom to contact in this case.
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 18:29
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    It certainly seems to be OK, but no one here can give you a guarantee, you would need to hire a lawyer in your country to be sure.
    – cag51 ♦
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 20:55
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the image has caption and in bracket says (After Rhumbler), I am not sure if it is by Thompson himself.

It appears that Rhumbler, rather than Thompson, is the original creator of the image in question. You will have to dig some more to find out who Rhumbler is and/or where this image is originally from, to evaluate whether this image is in the public domain.

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  • Hey I checked and Rhumbler would be Ludwig Rhumbler who died in 1939. So it should still be in public domain as far as I get it. What do you think? de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Rhumbler
    – jkhadka
    Commented Apr 2, 2019 at 19:53

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