Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
I did not think that. There was a claim here that all books where either PD, CC or posted with permission of author. But it was my understanding that some of the actual files posted here also is copyrighted by the person posting them. I have in other places argued for that people posting books here should explicitly state if the version they are posting is in the PD or not. I think it is bad that you do not know what you can do with a book posted here.
|
I think that might be a good idea to post what you can do with it, but I would expect that this is an arguable topic. The content is PD or has permission to post but the actual conversion and changes made is automatically copyrighted by the author. The rules I believe are that they can be downloaded for non-commercial use but you cannot sell them. You can give them to your friends under the same terms or tell them where they can download the latest version.
Note that a translated eBook has a whole new copyright based on the translation date so the translator, in effect, becomes the author. Similarly other changes and portions of a book can be construed as being under copyright. Copyright is a complicated subject and it is concerned more with the presentation than the content is most cases. For example you cannot copyright the contents of a telephone book but you can copyright the book itself.
Dale