Pew Research Center survey on American reading habits

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by John F

Isn't downloading of covers frowned upon, i.e. copyrighted material.

LOL... technically, you may be right. On the other hand, who is going to stop me from saving one of the Fellowship of the Ring covers to my hard drive and then putting it into the legally bought, but un-DRM-ed eBook?

No-one will ever know. If THAT had to be enforced, the entire world population would work in law enforcement and would be arresting one another.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Apache

More like laziness or apathy.
Apache

For the books that I'm aware of without covers, the issue is that the publisher (or author since that's frequently the publisher in backlisted ebooks) no longer has the right to use the original cover.

Rather obviously, if I have the original paper back (which I do in many cases), I can just snap a picture of the original cover, adjust it and add it via Calibre. I'm probably going to do that with some of them, but it is a bit of work.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

LOL... technically, you may be right. On the other hand, who is going to stop me from saving one of the Fellowship of the Ring covers to my hard drive and then putting it into the legally bought, but un-DRM-ed eBook?

No-one will ever know. If THAT had to be enforced, the entire world population would work in law enforcement and would be arresting one another.

So True!!!

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by cjr72

There was a farmer's market near where I grew up that had a book stall that sold paperbacks with the front covers torn off. I guess those books were detoured somewhere along the way to the dumpster.

Yeah, that is definitely illegal to sell. A book without a cover is considered stolen, thus cannot be sold (even for free).

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For the books that I'm aware of without covers, the issue is that the publisher (or author since that's frequently the publisher in backlisted ebooks) no longer has the right to use the original cover.

Then why do they seem to have the right to use the cover to advertise the sale of the book?

Even if you don't have the rights to the original cover you could commission new ones, it isn't like King doesn't get constant re-prints anyway.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Then why do they seem to have the right to use the cover to advertise the sale of the book?

Even if you don't have the rights to the original cover you could commission new ones, it isn't like King doesn't get constant re-prints anyway.

There is a difference between using a cover on a webpage to advertise and being able to grant someone the right to download such a cover. If you buy a license to an ebook, then you do have the right to download the ebook and do anything the license grants you to do. If the cover is not included in the licence you bought, then you don't have the right to download the cover. You only have the right to download copyrighted material if you have permission to do so. That permission is granted either through a license (e.g. ebook) or exlicitely if the web site owner declares it so on the webpage.

That there is no practical way to enforce it still does not make it legal to download. In the US every image posted on a webpage is automatically copyrighted and may not be downloaded legally unless permission is given. One exception is government pages (.gov) that are automatically in the public domain and images can be downloaded and used.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

There is a difference between using a cover on a webpage to advertise and being able to grant someone the right to download such a cover. If you buy a license to an ebook, then you do have the right to download the ebook and do anything the license grants you to do. If the cover is not included in the licence you bought, then you don't have the right to download the cover. You only have the right to download copyrighted material if you have permission to do so. That permission is granted either through a license (e.g. ebook) or exlicitely if the web site owner declares it so on the webpage.

That there is no practical way to enforce it still does not make it legal to download. In the US every image posted on a webpage is automatically copyrighted and may not be downloaded legally unless permission is given. One exception is government pages (.gov) that are automatically in the public domain and images can be downloaded and used.

Ok...so what if the cover is used to advertise the book, and is also displayed inside the book, but the author/publisher was to lazy or clueless to actually set it as the cover so that it doesn't display the cover in my library? Is it still illegal to download the cover and add it to the book so that it will display properly?

Shari

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by shalym

Ok...so what if the cover is used to advertise the book, and is also displayed inside the book, but the author/publisher was to lazy or clueless to actually set it as the cover so that it doesn't display the cover in my library? Is it still illegal to download the cover and add it to the book so that it will display properly?

Shari

I'd just use the image from inside the book, no illegal downloading necessary.

I admit that when lacking such an easily acquired image I haven't thought twice about downloading covers as it has seemed to be fair use and can't be said to take money from the copyright holder's coffers.

Now I'm wondering how many of us would be willing to spend a small sum on arty cover images for our favorite books

[GeoffR]

Some publishers invite you to download a cover image. For example Macmillan have a "Download Image" button below the book cover, tapping it serves up an image that is often much higher quality than the one embedded in the ebook.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ekbell

Now I'm wondering how many of us would be willing to spend a small sum on arty cover images for our favorite books

I wouldn't. I've always gotten a cover when buying paper books. An ebook is a book as well, and even though a cover isn't necessary (actually, it isn't even necessary for a paper book either), I expect there to be one.

If there's no cover, or a low quality one (= less than 1500 pixels on the long side, for me), then I'm not pleased and consider the ebook to be incomplete; as if I've ordered a paper book at an online store, and gotten one with no cover.

[4691mls]

I can understand wanting a nice cover on a hardback or paperback book that might stay on your coffee table where it's constantly on display, but how much time do you spend actually looking at the cover of an ebook?

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm honestly curious why covers for ebooks are that important.

The only covers I really didn't like were a couple of Overdrive library books I've had where the cover was a completely blank white rectangle - not even a name! But other than that, as long as I can tell what the book is, I don't really care. Either I'm reading the book and thus looking at the text inside, not the cover, or the ereader is off and stashed somewhere where I'm not looking at it.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I can understand wanting a nice cover on a hardback or paperback book that might stay on your coffee table where it's constantly on display, but how much time do you spend actually looking at the cover of an ebook?

As I read a paper book I close the book after each reading session and see the cover. Similar with an ebook, each time I put the ereader to sleep the cover displays on the sleep screen. That process associates my memories of the book with the cover image.

I think I can't remember anything about a book that I read 20 years ago, but then I pick it off my bookshelf and seeing the cover triggers a lot of memories, something that doesn't happen for me by just seeing a title.

[4691mls]

Thanks, Geoff, I can understand that. What I sometimes miss with ebooks that many pbooks have is the title of the book at the top of the page while you are reading.

[Abtacha]

The Kobo readers display the book title at the top of the page, at least in the kepub reader, I haven't used the epub one for years so I don't know about that one.