I'm a college professor and a research scientist: I'd better know the answer! But I've never heard that plagiarism is a legal issue. Are there actual laws on the books that criminalize plagiarism of public domain material? (I live in the US; is that answer different here than elsewhere?)
But honestly, your objection here is very much a side issue. As I already said, the point of my example earlier was to wonder whether someone could hypothetically transcribe the Foundation stories from the audio recording and sell the resulting novels, complete with a cover reading "Isaac Asimov's /Foundation/" (and perhaps with "Edited by J. Smith" in small text somewhere).
> But I've never heard that plagiarism is a legal issue. Are there actual laws on the books that criminalize plagiarism of public domain material?
It's more typically an issue of academics ethics. Plagiarism is a very serious charge in academia (and to some extent in politics), regardless of the source of the plagiarized material.
As to its being a legal issue, I don't think so, but IANAL. My earlier point was about proper attribution.
> As I already said, the point of my example earlier was to wonder whether someone could hypothetically transcribe the Foundation stories from the audio recording and sell the resulting novels, complete with a cover reading "Isaac Asimov's /Foundation/" (and perhaps with "Edited by J. Smith" in small text somewhere).
I have to say I don't know how that would play out. I guess the example of Shakespeare's plays stands as an example of the freedom one may have in such a case. But that's not plagiarism -- defined as claiming another's work as your own.
But honestly, your objection here is very much a side issue. As I already said, the point of my example earlier was to wonder whether someone could hypothetically transcribe the Foundation stories from the audio recording and sell the resulting novels, complete with a cover reading "Isaac Asimov's /Foundation/" (and perhaps with "Edited by J. Smith" in small text somewhere).