Personally, the admin in question is dead wrong. I'd go to the ISP and request they be yanked if they are unwilling to comply with your requests. While they may indeed be derivative works, that does not automatically eliminate copyright on them. Here's the US Copyright Office's explanation on this subject:
U.S. Copyright Office -Copyright Registration for Derivative Works (Circular 14) Quote:
A “derivative work,” that is, a work that is based on (or derived from) one or more already existing works, is copyrightable if it includes what the copyright law calls an “original work of authorship.” Derivative works, also known as “new versions,” include such works as translations, musical arrangements, dramatizations, fictionalizations, art reproductions, and condensations. Any work in which the editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship is a derivative work or new version.
A typical example of a derivative work received for registration in the Copyright Office is one that is primarily a new work but incorporates some previously published material. This previously published material makes the work a derivative work under the copyright law.
To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes. The new material must be original and copyrightable in itself. Titles, short phrases, and format, for example, are not copyrightable.
Examples of Derivative Works
The following examples show some of the many different types of derivative works:
* Television documentary (which contains some archival footage and photographs)
* Motion picture (based on a play)
* Novel in English (a translation of a book originally published in Russian)
* Sound recording (CD in which two of the ten selections were previously published online)
* Sculpture (based on a drawing)
* Drawing (based on a photograph)
* Book of maps (based on public domain maps with some new maps)
* Lithograph (based on a painting)
* Biography of John Doe (which contains journal entries and letters by John Doe)
* Drama about John Doe (based on the letters and journal entries of John Doe)
* SACD (inwhich all the tracks were previously released in a CD and have been remixed
* Words and music (some of the words are from the Bible)
* Words and musical arrangement (arrangement is based on a piece by Bach)
* Musical arrangement (based on a work by Bach) |
I've bolded the items which are similar concepts to that of basing a 3D graphic (essentially a computer generated sculpture) on a 2D work (screenshots and floorplans from the shows). These works are perfectly copyrightable and thus subject to the same use restrictions as any other copyrightable material.