-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Legality of selling hand-annotated and illustrated copies of Pale Fire
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:28:14 -0700
From: zero <cestlaguerre@gmail.com>
To: Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu>


I have been considering selling copies of Pale Fire that I have hand-annotated and illustrated; the annotations stem mostly from the notes to the American Library edition and Brian Boyd's Nabokov's 'Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery'. I was thinking that if I were to purchase used copies, go through the trouble of delicately annotating (color coding things like motifs, poem/commentary counterpoints, etc.) and illustrating (waxwings, Vanessa atalantas, Toothwort whites, cicadas, etc.) them in colored pencil that I could then sell them as unique art objects on something like Etsy without running afoul of any copyright law; however, this assessment is based in ignorance regarding the ins and outs of international intellectual property law. Does anyone here know whether or not I would be violating copyright? Could copyright violations be preempted by proper citation and references? 

Any information you can provide on this subject is greatly appreciated.

Michael Lavey
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