Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's irritating, I know (and I really do know!) when some sleazebag takes the work that you've put hundred of hours of effort into, and resells it to make a quick profit, but unfortunately that's the nature of the public domain. Best thing to do, as has been said, is to add a little introduction to the book. Doesn't need to be more than a paragraph. That will be your own work, and be protected by copyright.
Doesn't stop someone from stripping it out and selling the rest of the book, of course, but at least it means that they have to do a little work.
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Off-topic @HarryT:
Intellectual property laws discourages innovation, if everybody would go: "Oh you can't use this idea, it's mine and is protected by copyright laws" innovation would be minimized to nothing.
If you wrote a novel, or brought out a great idea in your book / article, wouldn't you like to see it used in different fields and inspire innovation? If you had protected it by copyright laws that would most likely not happen!
Quote:
Petra Moser has asserted that historical analysis suggests that intellectual property laws may harm innovation:
Overall, the weight of the existing historical evidence suggests that patent policies, which grant strong intellectual property rights to early generations of inventors, may discourage innovation. On the contrary, policies that encourage the diffusion of ideas and modify patent laws to facilitate entry and encourage competition may be an effective mechanism to encourage innovation.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property#Criticisms
On-topic:
As I see it, any content you write in order to achieve the end result of your book should be protected under copyright laws.
It's kind of like tax paying, i.e. you are eligible to write money spent as a business expenditure if it was done in order to produce income. Meaning, if I have a small toy store and I decide to buy a jet, writing that as a business expenditure is ineligible.
Going back to your copyrights question, in my opinion, if you wrote something that adds value in order to drive for the end result, that being your ebook, it should be considered as your creation and protected by copyright. This of course may vary in different countries.
I don't think you should even consider trying to copyright anything
but your book visuals, that is, the story (text, images) and the design it holds (css).