Quote:
Originally Posted by dickloraine
I think there was an article on the digital reader about something else. In it it was said, that in the US copyright requires original work. And just changing the layout etc. is not considered as adding original work to the text. So this is scam but unfortunately legal.
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Yep, concerning the text (and even the layout) what Kbook does is legal according to German law too, though the situation might be different in Britain if bgalbrecht is right.
Cover design is a different story though. It's not as if Kbook were the first publisher with this business model, but the others at least changed the covers. Kbook is the first to sell books from MR (and elsewhere) just as found, without changing anything. If you look at the preview of
pynch's Edith Wharton you will even see "Version 1.1, December 2012, by pynch."
So cover design is new creative work and most certainly protected by copyright. Might be the basis for a complaint to Kobo if one finds one's own upload there.