[Psymon]

Originally Posted by ekbell

As someone who's interested in reading your Shakespeare book I can answer one of your questions in your last post on that forum. "but in what way is does DRM "lower the value" ...?"

Oh, thanks for your interest in my book -- the way things are headed, you just might get your wish (that I'll be sharing it here anyway)! Of course, with that said, I do hope it doesn't end up being a total disappointment.

Itunes DRM means that I must read that book on an apple device using the iBook app. Unlike Google Books, Kindle or Kobo, I do not have the choice of reading on my android tablet or computer. All DRM reduces choice but the iTunes DRM is the most restrictive of the main competitors.

That's a really good point -- at least, in light of these recent revelations (for me) with regard to copyright, of course. Up until now, all this time I've been assuming that I did have copyright on all the ebooks I've made -- perhaps not with regard to the text itself (if that was unedited, public domain stuff), but at least with regard to the overall design and coding of everything.

I'm at a loss now what to think, let alone what sort of copyright notice -- if any -- to put in my ebooks. I'm still rather vague on the concept of copyright might apply on my coding (which, in effect, I would think would effectively also apply to the visual design of my book). Previous replies here, and also that thread on that other forum, have left me still unsure about that.

The only "definitive statements" with regard to this subject have been via those links that I provided earlier in this thread (here), where I pointed out that various websites make the assertion that the HTML/CSS coding for websites is copyrighted material (regardless of whether the actual content is or not) -- although while those sites make that statement as though it is, indeed, "definitive," I didn't find any references from more authoritative sources -- and if that applies to the coding of websites, then certainly it would also apply to the coding of ebooks, too.

Is there any kind of copyright notice, in reference to any aspect of my (not to mention your) book(s), that would truly be valid?

As I mentioned in that other forum, the copyright notice that I've had in my current "work-in-progress" has been as follows...

This entire publication copyright © Ron Koster, 2016. No part of this document or the related files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author and publisher. Cover art and the portrait of Shakespeare are original artwork by Ron Koster. Copyright © Ron Koster, 2016.

That -- or something similar -- has been what I've put in every book I've published so far. Is that really a valid declaration at all? Naturally it is for any new, original content in any of those books, of course, but certain parts (if not large parts) of my current Shakespeare book I don't know any more, let alone most of the contents a previous series of four books of the "Writings of Thoreau" (Henry David, that is), plus a little book of a 19th century poem about the horrors of becoming a drunk (ha ha). All of these latter works I'm totally up in the air now, at a loss for what to put (or change to) for any sort of copyright notice.

Any thoughts on that I'd love to hear --- but please, if you can, provide some authoritative references, if you can know of or can find any!

Thanks! I really look forward to further responses on this subject!

(PS. If I'm digressing here from subject matter of this thread -- I'm not sure -- and if this should perhaps be it's own thread somewhere else in these forums, just let me know and I post this instead wherever that might be.)