Is it legal to resell free content in USA ?

[atchoum]

Hi all,

this is my first message. I'm a small e-publisher based on DP since one year. I'm really bored with the competition on Amazon Kindle.

My work is based on dp, but i'm buying old books, and recreate all content. I never cut and past from free source, by this way. I'n sure to sell a good book. If someone cut and past from internet, if it's miss a page, no matter (in fact he don"t know what he sell). Shame.


In my case, you probably noticed than my english is bad. So a famous website in french, put content online, it's prohibited to resell it.

And of course on amazon, you can buy all the website. For example, after the creation of one ebook ( 3weeks, 7 days by weeks, 10 hours by day). I sell my work 2 dollars, others people noticed that it's was a good ebook (besteller during a month).

A lot of new version come on Amazon, alls new versions have the same mistakes than the internet source. i've send to amazon, sorry but alls versions are based on this source, alls have the same mistakes and the content can't be resselled.

Nice reply thank you for the notice and nothing else (the fact is Amazon take 70%)


My problem is the following. If i spend 2 weeks to publish an ebook, if i sell my ebook 2 dollars. (cheap price for a lot of work). Some others guys cut and past the full books, for the same or for less than 1 dollar. and it's so easy, to resell the free work made by someone else for free,

but i think that is illegal practice. In my country, you can't do a work for free and doing competition with an other company which give pay his salaries.


So this is my first message, and after a year of hard work. that's enough. Copyright is not God. If Amazon don't change, i'm start think for a lawsuit in USA.

Any clues are welcome.

[pdurrant]

Hi atchoum,

Public domain (PD) text is in the public domain. So anyone is free to copy it, give it away or (try to) sell it.

You cannot stop other people repackaging public domain texts and trying to sell them.

What you can do is make your version the best version, and explain in the description why it's better than the other versions also available.

[K. Molen]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Public domain (PD) text is in the public domain. So anyone is free to copy it, give it away or (try to) sell it...

What you can do is make your version the best version, and explain in the description why it's better than the other versions also available.

Hmm. I wonder, if someone were to buy that copy, can they then turn around and sell multiple copies of it?

Meaning, if I spend a lot of time formatting and cleaning up a PD text I've found on the internet, and then sell that on Amazon say, would it be legal for someone to buy one copy from me, maybe change the cover, and then turn around and sell that themselves?

[QuantumIguana]

Anyone may do as they wish with public domain sources. You can add value to entice people to buy your version instead of downloading the free version. For example, and interactive table of contends, illustrations or commentary. I read Dante's Divine Comedy, and while I could have obtained the text for free, I wouldn't have been able to understand it very well without commentary and footnotes. The text was public domain, the commentary and footnotes were not. Selling public e-books can be tough, you really have to persuade the reader that you're offering added value.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

if I spend a lot of time formatting and cleaning up a PD text I've found on the internet, and then sell that on Amazon say, would it be legal for someone to buy one copy from me, maybe change the cover, and then turn around and sell that themselves?

Yes.

Public domain means that the work is no longer protected by copyright. Formatting a document does not re-establish copyright protection.

A new translation, or a recreation in a new medium will be protected, but does not change the public domain status of the original material. If I make a film out of Wuthering Heights and put out an ebook of it, the film itself is protected, while the public domain portion (the original book) stays in public domain.

[calvin-c]

Keep in mind that there's a difference between Public Domain & Free. As noted, if a work is in the Public Domain then it's no longer protected by copyright. Some works, however, are distributed without requiring payment (free) but are still protected by copyright. In those cases it's up to the copyright holder-I've seen many where the copyright holder prohibits anyone charging for their works. So be sure to check out the copyright status before trying to sell a work that's distributed for free. If it's Public Domain then go ahead-but if it's still under copyright, even though distributed free, then you'll need permission.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Hmm. I wonder, if someone were to buy that copy, can they then turn around and sell multiple copies of it?

Meaning, if I spend a lot of time formatting and cleaning up a PD text I've found on the internet, and then sell that on Amazon say, would it be legal for someone to buy one copy from me, maybe change the cover, and then turn around and sell that themselves?

Not in the UK. In the UK there's something called typographic copyright which runs for 25 years from publication.

I don't know which other countries have a similar law.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Not in the UK. In the UK there's something called typographic copyright which runs for 25 years from publication.

I may be wrong, but I believe that extends to layout, not computer formatting.

E.g. making a PDF from a paper copy would be protected. I don't think that OCR'ing a paper book and making an epub is covered, or at the minimum might be very tough to enforce.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

I may be wrong, but I believe that extends to layout, not computer formatting.

E.g. making a PDF from a paper copy would be protected. I don't think that OCR'ing a paper book and making an epub is covered, or at the minimum might be very tough to enforce.

It's certainly written from the point of view of layout on paper. And it would certainly be permissible to OCR a printed book with typographic copyright and produce an ePub from it.

I can't remember if it has anything in it that would obviously protect ebook formatting, but I suspect that it might be considered to cover that if such a case ever came to court.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I can't remember if it has anything in it that would obviously protect ebook formatting, but I suspect that it might be considered to cover that if such a case ever came to court.

It would be an interesting argument, because there is no fixed representation of an ePub. If different devices and different applications render the layout differently, what is the layout that you are protecting?
And I can't see how it would prevent someone stripping off the formatting (which for most simple fiction is almost nothing anyway) and just taking the text.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

And I can't see how it would prevent someone stripping off the formatting (which for most simple fiction is almost nothing anyway) and just taking the text.

Typographic copyright isn't intended to 're-apply' copyright to the text itself, but only to protect one particular representation of it.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I can't remember if it has anything in it that would obviously protect ebook formatting, but I suspect that it might be considered to cover that if such a case ever came to court.

I expect it'd be covered by the same "look and feel" laws that protect website layouts... which means the original would have to be pretty distinctive to qualify for protection. Custom fonts, unusual CSS settings, special graphics for drop-caps, and so on.

The ePub Zen Garden shows how varied appearance can get with different settings... but most ebook developers aren't going that far, and most ereaders don't support many of those features.

[crich70]

As I understand it if a book is PD then anyone can repackage it and sell it. If someone translates a book from say French to English and the original book was PD that doesn't mean that the English translation is. I'm working on a copy of Somnium from the German epub here which is I understand PD as Tycho Brahe has been dead for centuries, but my English copy wouldn't necessarily be as it's a new translation of the text. Also like some have said books are sometimes offered free at sites like Smashwords for example, but just because they are free doesn't mean I can acquire a copy and resell it. It's still in copyright to the original author. And what is PD in one country may not yet be in another which adds to the headaches.

[H-P]

Hi,

Don't you have in US some commerce rules ? The question wasn't about the the right to publish a text which is domain public.

The question is

The right to resell the free work done as a free work by someone by a human. Imagine in the real world. Someone has a business, in the usa, can you work for free for your boss ? By this way, do you think than you boss can take all the market, because his product are cheaper.

Do you think that a company which give a salary can stay in competition with an other one which resell work done for free.

I know than Gutemberg project say than the content can be used for business, but if gutemberg project say, you can kill your mother... Can you say it legal because Gutemberg, say me. I've this public domaine right. )


In one word domain public has some rules but domain public is just on law.


Alien writer too

[DiapDealer]

With all due respect ... what!?