Quote:
Originally Posted by doreenjoy
Someone would have to file suit before there were legal ramifications. Generally a "cease and desist" letter is all that happens. And with a c&d there are no penalties (generally speaking, of course there are exceptions)
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I can understand them wanting to avoid being open for a suit, though. They're a big target and, even if they win, fighting these things is expensive. I was also curious about the same thing as F1: If they have the means to remove the book and choose not to, does that leave them more vulnerable. I am no legal scholar but it seems likely to me it could. Maybe the liability for the Ayn Rand books wouldn't be so big but quite a few copies of the Harry Potter books were downloaded and we know their author is not timid about using the legal hammer. It makes sense with this potential out there to have a policy of doing everything in your power to minimize damage.
Still, I think a good solution here would be better screening for the self-publishing submissions. It would be hard to catch absolutely everything amiss but I bet you could catch the vast majority with automation. If they search on the author or title and find them in their print catalog, that's a big tip off right there. There are certainly more intensive things they could do that would cast a wider net, but that's some low hanging fruit.