Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I believe that, in that circumstance, you would (technically) be breaking the law in downloading the book from Fictionwise. Fictionwise are perfectly within their rights to sell it - it's up to you to know that you shouldn't buy it.
Silly, isn't it?
|
Yep. But Fictionwise and other places cover themselves by talking about different rights and different locations, putting it on you to do the legal thing.
For that matter, MR maintains a Canadian (life+50) server, and a US server for stuff PD in the US. There are MR users who are probably breaking the law in
their location by downloading some of the MR editions, but I very much doubt that stops anyone...
PG Australia has a whole section of books that are PD in Oz but not necessarily elsewhere, with the usual disclaimers. I suspect a glance at their http logs would show precious few of those downloads coming from within Australia.
Ultimately, this seems to be a "Whose ox gets gored?" issue on a practical level. For example, even though Margaret Mitchell's _Gone with the Wind_
should be PD, her estate is assiduous about going after folks offering electronic versions. Yes, you could probably beat that in court, but who has the time and money and desire to do that? No one thus far, which is why Mitchell's estate is effective in their efforts.
For the vast majority of PD here but not there editions, I suspect no one really cares, as they don't see monetary value in the properties.
______
Dennis