Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The aim is not to be 100% sure that something is in the public domain, but to avoid the obviously illegal content. What I do myself is to do a quick check of the author's name in Wikipedia. If the author is still living, or has only recently died, there may be reason to doubt the legitimacy of the book, unless it's been released under a Creative Commons licence, or something similar. This is a very quick and easy check to make.
|
That is a very inaccurate yardstick you have there, HarryT.
The only thing that it tells you is a certain subset of cases where it is beyond all shadow of a doubt PD.
It doesn't take into account the one "unless" you included yourself, and it also doesn't take into account the
numerous other ways that I am sure you are already aware of. By design. Because it is nothing more than "a quick check".
So unless you actually expect everyone who downloads from Archive.org to perform an extensive background check
every single time "there may be reason to doubt the legitimacy of the book" (or, hey,
the various other things they archive
), the fact that you have wasted your time looking up the author on Wikipedia is utterly pointless.
Alternatively, you can go around terrifying people away from downloading PD material that doesn't have a pedigree written in neon-green, strobing, 12-foot-high letters.
The concept of "obviously illegal content" is entirely subjective, and your austere judgmentalism frightens me. How fortunate for us all that you do not write the laws.