Anarchist Cookbook author wants it pulled

[fjtorres]

From Nbcnews.com:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...-of-print?lite

"'The Anarchist Cookbook' should go quietly and immediately out of print,” says William Powell, who wrote the book as a stern 19-year-old, an opponent of the Vietnam War who felt violence was justified if it could prevent even greater violence in the process. He has since renounced that position, but never so forcefully, telling NBC in an email that “it is no longer responsible or defensible to keep it in print.”
Published in 1971, the book has sold more than two million copies and influenced hundreds of malcontents, mischief makers, and killers. Police have linked it to the Croatian radicals who bombed Grand Central Terminal and hijacked a TWA flight in 1976; the Puerto Rican separatists who bombed FBI headquarters in 1981; Thomas Spinks, who led a group that bombed 10 abortion clinics in the 1980s; Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995; the Columbine High School shooters of 1999; and the 2005 London public transport bombers.
Just in the last two years, law enforcement has tied the volume to Arizona shooter Jared Loughner, the Boston Marathon bombers, and at least a half dozen alleged terrorists and school shooters.
Powell, meanwhile, has apologized for the destructive cultural force that bears his name, and posted an eight-paragraph warning to would-be buyers on the book’s Amazon page. But Powell has no say: the rights belong to the publisher and always have — and the publisher has never wavered in his commitment to selling.
“You know, we don’t ban books in America,” says Billy Blann, who bought the rights to the "Cookbook" in 2002, just as digital sales took off. Blann is the founder of Delta Press, “the world’s most outrageous catalog,” as he calls it, and the purveyor of guides on “Justifiable Homicide,” “The Poor Man’s Nuclear Bomb,” and “The Butane Lighter Hand Grenade.”
Of hundreds of titles offering frank tips on bombs, bullets and blades, however, "The Anarchist Cookbook" remains his most-asked-for volume, he says, contributing largely to his $3 million in annual revenue and supporting a semi-retired life in a 6,000 square foot home in southern Arkansas.
“I’m sure I got my money back,” he says of the deal.

More at the source.

[tubemonkey]

He shouldn't have given up his rights.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

He shouldn't have given up his rights.

He traditionally published.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

He traditionally published.

Matters not. Actions have consequences; sometimes good, sometimes bad. What the rights holder does with what he wrote is no longer his business. He apologized, so now he needs to move on.

Personally, I think the book should stay in print; though I'd never read it.
.

[jgaiser]

That barn door has been closed so long ago, the horse is in another country.

Just search google. It's everywhere, including archive.org.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

What the rights holder does with what he wrote is no longer his business.

That was my point.
He can say whatever he wants, but the publisher still controls the copyright for the rest of his life and 70 years more. Basically into the next century.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

That barn door has been closed so long ago, the horse is in another country.

Just search google. It's everywhere, including archive.org.

I'm surprised that Anarchists don't have more respect for copyright laws. I hope it doesn't damage their image.

[QuantumIguana]

I had a copy of that book, I don't think I still have it. If it's not sold, would simply be pirated, and pulling it would undoubtedly make people more interested in it. Ironically, the author, by asking it be pulled is simply giving the book more publicity.

Even if the Anarchist Cookbook disappeared, there are still other sources for similar information. It had a recipe for a hallucinogenic drug made from banana peels, it was said to extract "bananadine". There's no such thing as bananadine, it first appeared as a hoax in the "Berkeley Barb". Someone using the Anarchist Cookbook as an actual manual is likely to hurt themselves.

[llcj]

When I first looked at the thread title, I read it as Antichrist Cookbook . I actually had to read it a couple of times for it to register as Anarchist Cookbook.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Barcey

I'm surprised that Anarchists don't have more respect for copyright laws. I hope it doesn't damage their image.

lol. I have heard that the 'recipes' for the various things are often full of errors so that the Anarchists are more likely to blow themselves up than anyone else. I wonder if they do blow themselves up ( but survive) can they sue the publisher and author for the errors that led to them doing so.

[Penforhire]

I always wanted to try the thermite recipe and try to melt through an engine block or something.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

He shouldn't have given up his rights.

Yep, that's what happens....

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Someone using the Anarchist Cookbook as an actual manual is likely to hurt themselves.

That's what led to the theory it was written by the CIA as a way to get rid of a few malcontent hippies.

[pdurrant]

He can recover the USA rights by giving notice sometime between 2017 and 2030, to recover the rights between 2027 and 2032. ("Termination Rights", which come in 56 years after the original copyright date.)

There may be ways in other countries to recover the rights, but it would require checking the copyright laws in each country.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

He can recover the USA rights by giving notice sometime between 2017 and 2030, to recover the rights between 2027 and 2032. ("Termination Rights", which come in 56 years after the original copyright date.)

There may be ways in other courties to recover the rights, but it would require checking the copyright laws in each country.

That would certainly stop anarchists from obtaining it.