Legitimate Publishers using Pirated Ebooks as Source

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I don't think we're talking about present day practices, but about what it was sensible/economic/practical for publishers to do back in the 1980s/1990s.

Bingo. We are talking backlist books. I would assume that most current publishers keep a copy of the books they control for a given period of time. I would even argue that it's prudent for them to keep a copy for as long as they control the publishing rights. I wouldn't agree that it's prudent to keep an electronic copy of books they no longer control.

On the other hand, since authors retain the copyright of their work, it is prudent for them to maintain a copy of the work. There are some authors who don't for various reasons and are content to leave everything in the publisher's hands. I wouldn't consider that prudent, but it's certainly their choice.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by murg

Yup. There's a reason that I haven't responded to pwalker8 in this thread, despite having started it.

Classic internet post for two reasons. First, because it is explicitly an ad hominem attack. Second, because it implicitly expresses the desire of many to stay within their own little echo chamber and not engage with those who have different view points.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I think that when you say publisher, you mean the publisher of the ebook, not the original publisher. Is that correct? If so, then I agree. They have the duty to make sure the ebook is as free from errors as possible.

Yes. I don't blame the original publisher for the abysmal state of Iron Dream on my Kindle. I blame Norman Spinrad. Most of the stuff I read, however, is not self-published.

[disconnected]

Once a publisher has any book, for any reason, in digital form I don't see why they'd ever want to delete it. Not because keeping it is their "responsibility" but just because it might come in handy someday and it's not like it should take much work, or space, to keep it.

If digital formats change I assume? they'd have a process set up to convert current stuff so why not convert everything. There are probably people here on Mobileread who maintain Calibre libraries of more books that most single publishers have ever published.

[copyrite]

I just finished an Overdrive book that clearly was a scan of some sort that didn't have a proof reader. Quite amusing... I wouldn't mind being paid to have proof read it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by copyrite

I just finished an Overdrive book that clearly was a scan of some sort that didn't have a proof reader. Quite amusing... I wouldn't mind being paid to have proof read it.

Backlist ebook releases are often produced by OCR. Reputable publishers make at least some attempt to correct the inevitable errors that result, of course.

[copyrite]

The errors got worse as the book went on. One I remember was ineant for meant. Clearly the proofer got sloppy.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by copyrite

The errors got worse as the book went on. One I remember was ineant for meant. Clearly the proofer got sloppy.

Hmmm. The first step after doing an OCR is generally a spell-check. "Ineant" is not, to the best of my knowledge, a real world, and should have been picked up at that stage. Sounds like a very shoddy job.

What was the book?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Hmmm. The first step after doing an OCR is generally a spell-check. "Ineant" is not, to the best of my knowledge, a real world, and should have been picked up at that stage. Sounds like a very shoddy job.

What was the book?

Fitting the (recent?) theme of this thread, you've mistakenly used "world" instead of "word".

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Fitting the (recent?) theme of this thread, you've mistakenly used "world" instead of "word".

Wretched "auto-word-completion" on my iPhone. Apologies. It recognises context, and obviously "real world" is something that people type more often than "real word", so it "helpfully" corrected it for me.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Wretched "auto-word-completion" on my iPhone. Apologies. It recognises context, and obviously "real world" is something that people type more often than "real word", so it "helpfully" corrected it for me.

Get an Android. Then the auto complete will make perfect solution. See it wanted a solution not sense.

[murg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Reputable publishers make at least some attempt to correct the inevitable errors that result, of course.

Do you some proof for this? Which publishers specifically?

In my experience, this has not been the case.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by murg

Do you some proof for this? Which publishers specifically?

One specific example is the "SF Gateway" back catalogue range. All created by OCR and very well proofed.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Hmmm. The first step after doing an OCR is generally a spell-check. "Ineant" is not, to the best of my knowledge, a real world, and should have been picked up at that stage. Sounds like a very shoddy job.

What was the book?

It was a category romance backlist.

If I kept a list of all the texts from me and to me that "guessed" the wrong word... it would be a very long list!

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Backlist ebook releases are often produced by OCR. Reputable publishers make at least some attempt to correct the inevitable errors that result, of course.

According to the ebook version of Deryni Rising, Katherine Kurtz's first Deryni book written in 1970, the ebook was generated by a fan who volunteered to scan it for her. A number of the backlist books that I've bought were generated by the author, or author estate, rather than a big name publisher. I didn't notice many errors, but then again, if I notice the error, it has to be pretty egregious. The story is kind of interesting, since Amazon list it as being published by Ace and sold by Penguin Group, yet here is what she said -

"Finally, I owe a special debt of thanks to Melissa Houle, one of the Web mistresses from www.rhemuthcastle.com, who scanned me the text from her beloved copy of Deryni Rising and probably broke its spine in the process. These first three books, and the three books of the Camber Trilogy, were all written on a typewriter, with carbon copies, in the dark ages before personal computers and word processing. Her kindness has saved me many hours of retyping the manuscript, so that preparing this edition took far less time out of my work on the next new Deryni novel. Another fan has already scanned Deryni Checkmate for me, and I have no doubt that a digital copy of High Deryni will be ready by the time I need to crank it through my machine."

This might be why the Camber books haven't made ebook status yet.