Details of Copyright Challenge,
ORIGINAL CLAIM FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
A claim for a recent book on Ptolemy's Geographia published by Princeton University Press in 2000 and entitled (Ptolemy's Geography - An Annotated translation of the Theoretical Chapters) by Professors J.L. Berggren and A. Jones, of Simon Fraser and Toronto University's respectively, contained the following promotional material. "UNTIL NOW THERE HAS BEEN NO AUTHORITATIVE OR EVEN SATISFACTORY ENGLISH TRANSLATION."
COPY OF EMAIL FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, ON 22/8/2001, IN REPLY TO COPYRIGHT CHALLENGE.
Subject: Translation – (Ptolemy’s Geographia)
Dear Mr. Francis,
have just read upon returning to the office. After carefully reviewing and
discussing your claim we cannot agree that the phrase complained of is
defamatory, nor do we believe that the words refer to or identify you or
your translation. Nevertheless, in the interests of compromise and goodwill,
and not as any admission of wrongdoing, we are willing to change our
promotional material in order to correct any misunderstandings that you
believe may have been formed.
We are deleting the words "or even satisfactory" and we are also adding the
words "available in bookstores" to our promotional copy to help
differentiate our work from yours and to lessen any possible interpretation
by readers that we were comparing our book to yours. These changes will be
made promptly to our website and will appear corrected on our promotional
material and paperback edition, forthcoming in December of this year.
Princeton University Press sincerely apologizes and regrets any negative
inferences that you may have drawn. At no time did we intend to publish a
statement concerning you or refer to you in a negative manner. We trust
that our apology and corrective action will serve to address your concerns.
Sincerely,
Walter Lippincott
Director
Princeton University Press