Quote:
Originally Posted by koland
Actually, I can't find any evidence that monoskop.org has permission to disseminate that or any other of the files they host. It appears from the Help page that anyone can create an account and upload files there. This particular one is still in print, definitely not out of copyright, with The New Press listed as the publisher for the paper edition.
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Sorry to take so long to respond. I had actually made the post on a different thread than I had planned to and just in the last hour or so found your post and cromag's.
I have taken down the post. I won't be posting anymore ebooks located at monoskop.org.
Believe it or not, I am very conscientious about stuff like you brought up. I run across a superfluity of ebooks (mostly pdfs) offered for free download on various websites. I pass on a huge number of those, because of concerns. For example, I found, a few days ago, a really desirable ebook of fairly recent publication, and one that is pretty expensive if you have to buy it. The issue? It was posted on an Italian website. The book is in English, but the website posting it is Italian (with no "English" option that I could find). I know nothing about the Italian language. I know even less about Italian copyright laws (my understanding is that even if a book is out of copyright in the U.S., a person in the U.S. for example, yours truly) cannot legally download the book for free from a website located in a country where the book is still in copyright). I gathered that the website was of a non-profit, but that was about all. Early today, I closed the tab on my browser for that webpage (meaning that I've given up on posting the ebook on it).
Some examples of free ebooks that I feel comfortable posting are those which come directly from the publisher, those found on reliable third-party websites such as archive.org and books.google.com, and those on reliable websites which clearly state that the offerings are open access. In other words, ones which are squeaky clean. Not to fear, that still leaves an enormous amount of acceptable ebooks, far more than I can possibly post myself.
Concerning
The Lands Where the Blues Began, the publisher (The New Press) is a non-profit. It seems to me that that may increase the likelihood that the book was posted with their permission. However, we just don't know that permission actually had been granted. It seems to me that when permission has been granted, it would be helpful if the uploader of the ebook would upload also a
scanned (i.e., facsimile) copy of the letter, or whatever that they've received from the publisher/copyright holder, along with it, in order to give assurance to everyone else that the person has permission to have it posted on a third party's website.