Two Different Books but with same cover art

I was recently at a bookstore, and came across two different books which
have the exact same cover art. They are published by different publishers
and are new books, but both deal with food or eating. The books are: Last
Suppers by James Dickerson, and Duchess Who Would Not Sit Down by Jesse
Browner. Would this make the books collectable? I think the image is from a
stock photography company. I am surprised the stock photography company
would let something like this happen.

Tom

"mary" <tombates.RemoveThis@city-net.com> wrote in message
news:3fb5da14$0$35832$4d5ecec7@reader.city-net.com...


 > I was recently at a bookstore, and came across two different
 > books which have the exact same cover art. They are published by
 > different publishers and are new books, but both deal with food or
 > eating. The books are: Last Suppers by James Dickerson, and Duchess
 > Who Would Not Sit Down by Jesse Browner. Would this make the books
 > collectable? I think the image is from a stock photography company.
 > I am surprised the stock photography company would let something
 > like this happen.
 >
 > Tom
 >

When you say the same cover art you presumably don't mean the
same lettering. Simply the same background photograph.

To answer your observations in the reverse order.

There are different categories in use for the photos in Commercial
Libraries such as Hulton-Getty, but in general the owner of the rights
in the photograph doesn't care who uses their photographs and for what
purposes, so long as its within the terms of the licencisng agreement.
Covering legality, taste, the size of the printing run the size of
reproduction etc. etc. AFAIAA they don't offer exclusive rights over
a given period because that would be impossible to police - existing
rights holders might not have used up all their previous rights by
that point etc etc.

In addition there are large numbers of photographs which have ended up
in the public domain, over which nobody seems to claim any rights at all.
i.e Nobody seems to get sued for using them.

So the fact that the cover artwork is based on an identical photo isn't
execeptional but it might indicate that both publishers are scrimping
by using a stock photograph rather than commissioning a new one.

Are you sure both of these publishers aren't part of the same group?

This sort of thing - shared artwork isn't that uncommon at the cheaper
end of the market - its not unknown for the same book to be simply
reissued with a new title even.

In other words, its very doubtful if these are of any value
to the majority of collectors. Which doesn't mean there's not someone
soemewhere who collects nothing else. The problem is finding out where
he or she lives!




michael adams

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