Classics on Fictionwise.com

[Elfwreck]

MobileRead's collection includes a number of CC releases that don't allow commercial use. (Some CC licenses do allow commercial use, often with a "share-alike" requirement... if you can sell it, so can someone else. This keeps mainstream publishers away from them, but doesn't stop fanworks being sold in zines and such. More common for photos than texts.)

A random collection of MR's ebooks loaded onto a disc is likely to include
--Copyrighted works that are here by specific permission, which doesn't include permission to distribute elsewhere,
--CC works that don't include permission to sell,
--Public domain works reformatted, wherein the reformatting is copyrighted (just like new editions of Dickens & Shakespeare claim to be copyrighted by their publishers)
--Public domain works where the formatter has released all claim on the document.

Just one from Category A or B is enough to get the eBay listing pulled. The latter two categories are more legally iffy, but eBay tends to hedge on the side of copyright protection. It's possible that the seller might insist on a DMCA notification, and file a counter-claim or whatever, but that involves giving up their legal name & contact info to the person complaining, so it's not likely.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

MobileRead's collection includes a number of CC releases that don't allow commercial use. (Some CC licenses do allow commercial use, often with a "share-alike" requirement... if you can sell it, so can someone else. This keeps mainstream publishers away from them, but doesn't stop fanworks being sold in zines and such. More common for photos than texts.)

A random collection of MR's ebooks loaded onto a disc is likely to include
--Copyrighted works that are here by specific permission, which doesn't include permission to distribute elsewhere,
--CC works that don't include permission to sell,
--Public domain works reformatted, wherein the reformatting is copyrighted (just like new editions of Dickens & Shakespeare claim to be copyrighted by their publishers)
--Public domain works where the formatter has released all claim on the document.

Just one from Category A or B is enough to get the eBay listing pulled. The latter two categories are more legally iffy, but eBay tends to hedge on the side of copyright protection. It's possible that the seller might insist on a DMCA notification, and file a counter-claim or whatever, but that involves giving up their legal name & contact info to the person complaining, so it's not likely.

The fact that 3 & 4 are seen as legally iffy is a symptom of a very sad state of affairs indeed.

- Ahi

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

MobileRead's collection includes a number of CC releases that don't allow commercial use. (Some CC licenses do allow commercial use, often with a "share-alike" requirement... if you can sell it, so can someone else. This keeps mainstream publishers away from them, but doesn't stop fanworks being sold in zines and such. More common for photos than texts.)

A random collection of MR's ebooks loaded onto a disc is likely to include
--Copyrighted works that are here by specific permission, which doesn't include permission to distribute elsewhere,
--CC works that don't include permission to sell,
--Public domain works reformatted, wherein the reformatting is copyrighted (just like new editions of Dickens & Shakespeare claim to be copyrighted by their publishers)
--Public domain works where the formatter has released all claim on the document.

Just one from Category A or B is enough to get the eBay listing pulled. The latter two categories are more legally iffy, but eBay tends to hedge on the side of copyright protection. It's possible that the seller might insist on a DMCA notification, and file a counter-claim or whatever, but that involves giving up their legal name & contact info to the person complaining, so it's not likely.

Hmm, I thought it's no longer allowed to sell ebooks on eBay at all anymore... I seemed to have heard something like that not too long ago.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Hmm, I thought it's no longer allowed to sell ebooks on eBay at all anymore... I seemed to have heard something like that not too long ago.

An author should be allowed to sell her own ebooks on ebay. And some collections would be entirely legal to sell--a disc full of Gutenberg ebooks, for example. (Why someone would buy the disc instead of downloading them themselves... eh, some people would rather have it compiled for them.)

I looked at some of the ebook listings.
While "the complete Stephen King ebook collection" is almost certainly a violation, the disc of "100 great Kindle books - Classics" is probably fine.