Any kind of copyrighted ebook repository out there?

[graycyn]

Thinking on the Public Domain Day 2013 thread, it makes me rather sad to think how long it may be before some books will be public domain.

I am digitizing some rare titles, stuff *I* liked when young that I wanted to have a re-read of for nostalgia's sake. I didn't realize when I started to find them that so many would be really hard to get!

But I will be long dead before any of these titles would be in public domain. Even the boys series I'm working on that was published in the USA in the mid to late 1920s all had the copyrights renewed (I checked.) so I don't think it likely I will live long enough to distribute them.

Of course, it probably wouldn't be legal but I wish there would be a way it could be! With a lot of us out there digitizing stuff and proofreading, it would sure be nice if somewhere there was a repository, a place where folks could submit their texts or finished ebooks and then, when they finally became public domain, they could be released.

Probably wishful thinking on my part. I'm just afraid that by the time many of these books are public domain, there will hardly be any paper copies left to scan the texts from.

[BeccaPrice]

There is an author of whom I'm fond, Patricia Veryan, who died around 2002. I'll be long dead before her works are public domain. I have some of her work in duplicate, so I'm slowly 1DollarScan-ing them, but I'd much rather be able to legally purchase the books in eformat. Unfortunately, nobody can find out who her literary executor is, to make the request, so I'm stuck. (not totally impressed with the ocr on the one book I've had done so far)

Try asking the people who maintain archive.org. Chances are that they have dealt with such copyright issues in the past and have a ready answer.

[SteveEisenberg]

books.google.com has a vast number of digitized books, under copyright. You can try (in quotation marks) googling a phrase from a book of your choice. A lot of the times, it will be in the google database -- and a lot of the time, it won't be. Unless the publisher has agreed otherwise, all you can see are small "fair use" snippets.

See:

Court rules book scanning is fair use, suggesting Google Books victory (October 2012)

The google searches are based on OCR scans, and so have many errors. OCR is the kind of technology that only improves slowly, but decades from now it won't be half bad.

[Barbara1955]

Have you folks considered contacting the Publishers? Maybe get PAID to do what you love! It would sure be helpful for those that cant & really really want the books!

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Thinking on the Public Domain Day 2013 thread, it makes me rather sad to think how long it may be before some books will be public domain.

I am digitizing some rare titles, stuff *I* liked when young that I wanted to have a re-read of for nostalgia's sake. I didn't realize when I started to find them that so many would be really hard to get!

But I will be long dead before any of these titles would be in public domain. Even the boys series I'm working on that was published in the USA in the mid to late 1920s all had the copyrights renewed (I checked.) so I don't think it likely I will live long enough to distribute them.

Of course, it probably wouldn't be legal but I wish there would be a way it could be! With a lot of us out there digitizing stuff and proofreading, it would sure be nice if somewhere there was a repository, a place where folks could submit their texts or finished ebooks and then, when they finally became public domain, they could be released.

Probably wishful thinking on my part. I'm just afraid that by the time many of these books are public domain, there will hardly be any paper copies left to scan the texts from.

Gutenberg in Australia would probably love to hear from you!!!

Our copyright laws are such that all authors who died in 1954 and before are copyright free.

And so are photos.

Here's the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

[tango7]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Gutenberg in Australia would probably love to hear from you!!!

Our copyright laws are such that all authors who died in 1954 and before are copyright free.

And so are photos.

Here's the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Thank you.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Gutenberg in Australia would probably love to hear from you!!!

Our copyright laws are such that all authors who died in 1954 and before are copyright free.

And so are photos.

Here's the link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

ooops ..... I'll link the Aus address now:

http://gutenberg.net.au/

[SleepyBob]

Hmm. But can a person living in the U.S. legally e-mail Gutenberg.au an e-book that is still copyrighted in the U.S.? And can he legally receive e-books to proof that are still copyrighted in the U.S.?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Hmm. But can a person living in the U.S. legally e-mail Gutenberg.au an e-book that is still copyrighted in the U.S.?

No. The sender would be breaking US copyright law by sending it. PG wouldn't be breaking any law by receiving it, though, assuming it was out of copyright in Australia.

And can he legally receive e-books to proof that are still copyrighted in the U.S.?

No. It would be a copyright violation to download such a book in the US, or have it sent to you.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No. The sender would be breaking US copyright law by sending it. PG wouldn't be breaking any law by receiving it, though, assuming it was out of copyright in Australia.



No. It would be a copyright violation to download such a book in the US, or have it sent to you.

I had actually thought of PG Australia as suggested, as one of the authors I'm doing books by did die before 1954. Most of the others, not. And then, in the case of some books that are illustrated, the illustrations might not be PD in Australia even if the texts would be.

But I have suspected all along that me, being in the U.S.A., cannot legally pass the books over to Australia. Thanks for confirming that. I'll definitely have to think on that one.

I'm also not sure if they'd like my kind of ebook anyway. While I keep text as close as possible to the original, including archaic spellings, I do correct paper goofs when I find them. I also add in bibliographies that weren't present in the original, about the author pages, and sometimes even about the illustrator pages. I am not adverse to scanning dust jacket photos and including such either.

I make the kind of books *I* like, because I want to remember these authors and illustrators from my childhood.

I guess the best way might be to leave the ebooks with family and hope that someone in the future will release them at the proper time when I am gone. Hopefully I've got a couple decades in me yet. Knock on wood.

In a couple cases, I might be able to get in touch with family members of the deceased authors, turn the files over that way. No guarantee they will do anything with it though.

It's a hard thing. Several of the texts I'm doing are really hard to find.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Have you folks considered contacting the Publishers? Maybe get PAID to do what you love! It would sure be helpful for those that cant & really really want the books!

Well, in one case, I and one or two others have been in touch with the copyright holder about scanning a particular title we are all lucky enough to own, however, what we have are all paperbacks and the rights holder thinks that the paperback edition may have been abridged. He is not sure though. At any rate, he is turning down people willing to scan it at present.

He has been trying to find a publisher to reprint in paper form, but with no success so far. Hoping he will start thinking about the ebook route.