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Originally Posted by GrannyGrump
I'm not sure if this comment is apropos, but when I add "extras" to a rehabbed public domain book, I include a statement on this order:
"The original text of this book is in the public domain in countries where copyright is "Life+70" or less [or whatever the time span since the death of the author]. Additional material [usually footnotes/annotations] and cover design are released under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 License."
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The copyright notice that I ultimately came up for this current Shakespeare book I've been working on is, I suppose, a little more restrictive. The guy over on that aforementioned copyright forum seemed to feel it served it's purpose, though.
Here's what I have now in my book:
"This ebook copyright © Ron Koster, 2016. All images — including the cover art and all other original digital artwork, as well as public domain images modified and manipulated specifically for use in this ebook — are copyright Ron Koster. The six Shakespearean plays in this book originate from public domain sources, with modifications mainly to formatting and only minor conformity in word (name) spelling. The various poems — including those accredited to Shakespeare, as well as
The Ghost of Lucrece by Thomas Middleton, and the complete
Loves Martyr of Robert Chester — are new digital transcriptions by Ron Koster made directly from the original 16th and 17th century sources, with a variety of textual corrections and emendations made throughout each poetic work. For any activities regulated by copyright, written permission from the copyright holder is required."
I suppose that provides more info than just a mere copyright notice, but I guess it serves its purpose in making clear what was "my" work and what is purely public domain stuff.
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Which, if downloaders are honorable folk, means they should only redistribute the book free of charge and attribute me for the additional material and original cover design. Doesn't mean that will happen though. There is a certain **@$%/* who scrapes the MR and other free libraries and sells the books he gathers on the Kobo site for a few dollars each. What a horse's patoot!
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Sheesh. If that person is doing this on a regular basis, why doesn't anyone go after him?
Reminds me of when I was working on my series of books on the works of Henry David Thoreau. I'd downloaded a variety of free versions from different sources, just to get ideas from how others had done things, and they were ALL basically just the ones put out by Project Gutenberg, with perhaps the most notable difference in design, etc. being the addition of a publisher's imprint -- fer cryin' out loud.
How these people can even call themselves a "publisher," when they've done virtually no work at all, is beyond me.
