01-03-2013, 09:09 AM | #31 |
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Although that's technically true, from a practical perspective one could reasonably say that any author who died prior to 1923 is in the public domain, given that all works published prior to 1923 are in the public domain. It's not strictly true when it comes to such things as posthumous works, but it's a reasonable way to think about the situation practically.
Last edited by HarryT; 01-03-2013 at 09:14 AM. Reason: Typo |
01-03-2013, 10:37 AM | #32 | |
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Or I suppose you could have found them on project Gutenberg Australia based on the posts in this thread, since it would have adopted the shorter term for Montgomery's books that were published in Canada. The copyright terms are a confusing mess and the world wide web doesn't have physical geographic barriers making the whole system (such as it is) irrelevant. Yeah, I personally apply the "if it's in the public domain somewhere, it's fair game" rule. Since I'm in Canada which has life+50, this is mostly valid for me anyway, but there are still some US works that are PD there and not here. My rule of thumb is of course not legal, but is practical since anything in the public domain somewhere is available online. Last edited by Synamon; 01-03-2013 at 11:21 AM. |
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01-03-2013, 10:47 AM | #33 | |
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Greg Weeks |
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01-03-2013, 10:59 AM | #34 |
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Most of them have been in the UK public domain, because of the "rule of the shorter term". But not the later ones (until a couple of days ago).
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01-03-2013, 09:06 PM | #35 |
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Hermann Hesse is PD in Canada now, but only in German. Translations get their own copyright and I don't think any of the translations are PD.
US copyright is incomprehensible to ordinary mortals. I know of at least one work that is PD in the States but still under copyright in Canada (and the rest of the world as well). At one time, an American author could lose their US copyright if the work was first published outside of the US. This happened with Ayn Rand's Anthem which was first published in England. I wonder how the rule of the shorter term would apply in this case? Canada does not implement the "rule of the shorter term". |
01-03-2013, 09:36 PM | #36 | |
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I don't give a crap about Disney and its precious output so they don't have anything to worry about from me and given they seem to be the only real reason Life + 70 came into being, I don't feel particularly naughty. |
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01-03-2013, 10:26 PM | #37 | |
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01-03-2013, 11:30 PM | #38 |
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Question for you HarryT: How do you determine which public domain books you are "allowed" to publish on mobileread? Which copyright laws do you follow?
EDIT: saw another poster wrote it was Life+50. What's the rationale for that choice? Have you ever run into any legal trouble? Last edited by holymadness; 01-03-2013 at 11:33 PM. |
01-03-2013, 11:58 PM | #39 |
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The MR servers where the books are stored is in Canada. IIRC there is also a US server where books in the US PD, but not Canada can be moved my a mod after upload.
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01-04-2013, 12:12 AM | #40 | |
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I figure the existence of copyright is for the benefit of the creators. The limit to copyright is supposed to be for our benefit (general culture, art etc..). That's why towards the start of the copyright period I tend to champion the needs of the creator. However, the longer the period passed, the more my consideration becomes self-centred - or at least not as much pro-creator. That doesn't mean after 5 years of copyright I say: "Hey you! You've had 5 years - now it's my turn!". But I do think that Life + 50 is ample time to make a living. |
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01-04-2013, 03:48 AM | #41 |
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For fear of not being able to stop bleating off, and to protect the delicate and sensitive ears of MR members, I shall refrain from giving my view on the matter of the Balance of Trade being misused to constrain Australians on the issue of copyright.
Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 01-04-2013 at 03:52 AM. Reason: include : delicate and sensitive etc |
01-04-2013, 03:57 AM | #42 |
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01-04-2013, 06:04 AM | #43 |
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01-04-2013, 06:07 AM | #44 | |
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But EU copyright law does incorporate the rule of the shorter term, so unless Germany has a bilateral copyright treaty with Canada (as it does with the USA), you can now legally download Canadian editions of Hesse.
Wikipedia has this to say on the matter: Quote:
EDIT: pdurrant kindly advises me that the rule of the shorter term only applies if the work is first published in the country concerned, so, although many Canadian works are indeed in the public domain in Germany due to the rule of the shorter term, Hesse probably isn't. Last edited by HarryT; 01-04-2013 at 07:04 AM. |
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01-04-2013, 06:24 AM | #45 |
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Really? Do you want to say that I am allowed to download a book of Hesse from a Canadian server but not from a German/European server?
At least the German part of the MobileRead library which stores their uploads on the Canadian server, respects the 70+ years time. |
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