MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kobo should be incapable to prevent the publishing of a stolen epub?

bgalbrecht · 05-30-2016, 11:04 PM

First, if you want to discuss something here in the forums, don't do it as an attached ebook, most people are going to ignore the attachment.

Since this is a public domain book, if it contains no additional material, like an author biography or some prefatory content discussing the context of the work, anybody is allowed to make a copy of the work and charge whatever they want for it. However, I believe some European countries may have some sort of 25 year layout copyright which probably covers things like CSS or prevents someone from creating a print copy with exactly the same pages as another print copy. If the person creating the epub is from the US, that wouldn't apply. I think MobileRead is located in the EU, so if the person listing it at Kobo is from the EU and that layout copyright valid across the entire EU, you might be able to get Kobo to take it down for EU countries.

Project Gutenberg ebooks contain credits, information about Project Gutenberg and the license under which people can use their works, and it basically says if you leave in the Project Gutenberg bits, there are additional consideration, but if you strip off the Project Gutenberg bits, you can do whatever you want. There are a lot of ebooks sold at Kobo, Amazon, B&N, etc. which originated at MobileRead, PG, and other public domain websites. There's really nothing you can do about it except maybe post a review that it's free here, and maybe that it's a better edition (include why if you do so). Open Road Media gives away a free PD ebook every day. I noticed the freebie from a day or two ago was recently released at PG with a nice illustrated edition, and the ORM edition had no illustrations. Now I'm tempted to go to Amazon, etc. and post a review.

05-30-2016, 11:04 PM	#3
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	First, if you want to discuss something here in the forums, don't do it as an attached ebook, most people are going to ignore the attachment. Since this is a public domain book, if it contains no additional material, like an author biography or some prefatory content discussing the context of the work, anybody is allowed to make a copy of the work and charge whatever they want for it. However, I believe some European countries may have some sort of 25 year layout copyright which probably covers things like CSS or prevents someone from creating a print copy with exactly the same pages as another print copy. If the person creating the epub is from the US, that wouldn't apply. I think MobileRead is located in the EU, so if the person listing it at Kobo is from the EU and that layout copyright valid across the entire EU, you might be able to get Kobo to take it down for EU countries. Project Gutenberg ebooks contain credits, information about Project Gutenberg and the license under which people can use their works, and it basically says if you leave in the Project Gutenberg bits, there are additional consideration, but if you strip off the Project Gutenberg bits, you can do whatever you want. There are a lot of ebooks sold at Kobo, Amazon, B&N, etc. which originated at MobileRead, PG, and other public domain websites. There's really nothing you can do about it except maybe post a review that it's free here, and maybe that it's a better edition (include why if you do so). Open Road Media gives away a free PD ebook every day. I noticed the freebie from a day or two ago was recently released at PG with a nice illustrated edition, and the ORM edition had no illustrations. Now I'm tempted to go to Amazon, etc. and post a review.