Austrian publisher automatically generated Kindle books from Youtube comments

[Lynx-lynx]

Agree with you Elemenop ..... the same with Twitter.

It seems to me that if a general member of the public puts their commentary stuff out there in a public way then they are the ones who need to be aware that not only can they probably not retrieve those comments (deletion is still likely to leave them on a server) but that that the comments may be used or abused in ways that they never intended probably without their knowledge or permission.


PS If I knew the Latin equivalent of Caveat Emptor (buyer beware) for writer beware then I'd use it. (Oh the failings of a non classics education, sigh .... (lol))

[Graderman]

Andy Warhol said that art is anything you can get away with. Frankly I class this with graffiti and am very doubtful it is art.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Graderman

Andy Warhol said that art is anything you can get away with. Frankly I class this with graffiti and am very doubtful it is art.

Art is what produces a reaction from those who experience it. Rage is certainly a reaction.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Graderman

Andy Warhol said that art is anything you can get away with. Frankly I class this with graffiti and am very doubtful it is art.

Graderman graffiti is art .... depending on who you listen to on the subject ....

[Graderman]

I live on Vancouver Island and I have seen a lot of really beautiful places defiled by spray cans. At what point does art become vandalism?

[Lynx-lynx]

Graderman, yep .... it seems 'in the mind of the beholder' has it's drawbacks when all graffiti is considered art.

For me, I fit into the category of art appreciation that says that whilst I don't understand (all) art, I know what I like (she sniggers as she sees the statue of David in her minds eye, lol)

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I think you guys are missing the point. The books were not created to make money for the people who created them, it's an art project....

It's kind of a moronic art project.

You can easily discuss the quirks of copyright without scraping randomized text and selling it as a book.

If they were really curious about this stuff, perhaps they should've sat down with a lawyer for 30 minutes and get it explained to them.

Originally Posted by elemnop

why assume that the original commentators could be entitled to royalties, when they freely gave their own content to YouTube?

As soon as content is in a fixed form, it's covered by copyright.

It's irrelevant if they put it on Youtube or Facebook or any other public site, or if there's compensation involved.

Originally Posted by elemenop

Do you know if you own the comment that you just posted here on MobileRead? How do you own it if you just gave it away, for free?

Technically speaking, albeit in the absence of the certainty of legal review, the poster has control of the copyright unless the user agreement stipulates that "comments and postings are the copyright of the web forum."

You don't need to fill out any paperwork or do any fancy stuff. Fixed form = instant copyright.

It doesn't matter if you posted without expectation of compensation, that is utterly irrelevant to the establishment of copyright. If I write a software program, and I insist that I want it distributed free of charge, and that all the unique code I wrote for it cannot be used in a commercial project, it's copyright that will back me up and allow me to stipulate that it is exclusively for non-commercial use.

Again, you don't really need a bunch of Eurotrash hackers to start these kinds of discussions.

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by taustin

Art is what produces a reaction from those who experience it.

That is a very simplistic view.
It would mean that anything can be considered to be "art".

If you ask me, this reasoning seems more like an afterthought, an excuse after something has been done.
(I often wonder if much of what is declared to be "art" ever was intended as such. I mean, if I go out and build a snowman in the middle of the street and declare it as art, who'd dare to speak up against me?...)

[edit]
More on topic: I'm not sure what to think of this experiment - what are those random comments supposed to be, why would anyone want to read that?