MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Copyright of derivative works from archive.org?

etienne66 · 07-16-2009, 07:28 PM

We'll I've been reading all the commentary here and I still plan on releasing the ebook on Amazon and FictionWise, but I think I will release a copy here on MobileRead in .mobi and .epub formats. It doesn't sound like I have any rights whatsoever for the work I have done on this project.

I would have thought I would have some rights to the HTML formatting code I wrote, but not the text itself. I find this somewhat odd, because I know if I were to reprint the original book, you could not just walk into a bookstore and take it without paying for it even though the text itself is in the public domain. If that were true why would anyone bother to reprint classic books such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".

But at the same time you could theoretically find dozens or even 1000's of printed editions of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". I have looked at the Gutenberg Projects rendition of this particular book and I would not be satisfied with this rendition in either print or ebook format as I don't feel that it matches the original printings formatting very well. And even in a bookstore you can glance through the book to see if it is an edition that you would like to read.

It sounds like to me you could buy any public domain ebook from Amazon and then publish it for sell without change as long as the images in the ebook are in the public domain as well.

For example; I know that Goodmountain books distributes Project Gutenberg ebooks on Amazon.com. They are required to pay Project Gutenberg for using their name. The only thing else I've seen in the preview copies of their books is a few words about copyright and a picture of their logo, which I guess is the only thing in the book they have a copyright on as I saw no other commentary. But I'm not impressed with them leaving the "--" instead of replacing them with an "—".

I guess my best recourse is to put a copyright page that states that the text itself is in the public domain, but I won't mention Archive.org, Project Gutenberg or MobileRead as I do not want to infringe upon their copyrighted names. But of course I will give myself credit (or blame) for proofreading and formatting this edition.

Thanks,
Etienne66

07-16-2009, 07:28 PM	#21
etienne66 Groupie Posts: 185 Karma: 9832 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Texas, US Device: Kindle 2, PRS-600 Black, PRS-650 Red, Adam w/ Pixel Qi(pre-ordered)	We'll I've been reading all the commentary here and I still plan on releasing the ebook on Amazon and FictionWise, but I think I will release a copy here on MobileRead in .mobi and .epub formats. It doesn't sound like I have any rights whatsoever for the work I have done on this project. I would have thought I would have some rights to the HTML formatting code I wrote, but not the text itself. I find this somewhat odd, because I know if I were to reprint the original book, you could not just walk into a bookstore and take it without paying for it even though the text itself is in the public domain. If that were true why would anyone bother to reprint classic books such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". But at the same time you could theoretically find dozens or even 1000's of printed editions of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". I have looked at the Gutenberg Projects rendition of this particular book and I would not be satisfied with this rendition in either print or ebook format as I don't feel that it matches the original printings formatting very well. And even in a bookstore you can glance through the book to see if it is an edition that you would like to read. It sounds like to me you could buy any public domain ebook from Amazon and then publish it for sell without change as long as the images in the ebook are in the public domain as well. For example; I know that Goodmountain books distributes Project Gutenberg ebooks on Amazon.com. They are required to pay Project Gutenberg for using their name. The only thing else I've seen in the preview copies of their books is a few words about copyright and a picture of their logo, which I guess is the only thing in the book they have a copyright on as I saw no other commentary. But I'm not impressed with them leaving the "--" instead of replacing them with an "—". I guess my best recourse is to put a copyright page that states that the text itself is in the public domain, but I won't mention Archive.org, Project Gutenberg or MobileRead as I do not want to infringe upon their copyrighted names. But of course I will give myself credit (or blame) for proofreading and formatting this edition. Thanks, Etienne66