Not Public Domain, but what if I'm given rights?

[Margaret]

My friend's mother wrote the Judy Bolton mysteries, none of which are yet in the public domain. My friend holds the rights to these books and would like them recorded for Librivox. Is this possible? The first book I'd like to do would be The Haunted Attic by Margaret Sutton, pub 1932. Thanks for any help.

[TriciaG]

No, because we release the recordings themselves into the public domain, which means anyone can take those recordings and do anything they want with them. I would assume your friend wouldn't want recordings of the books to show up in places she doesn't approve of (distributed further than she expects, used to create a cartoon version of the stories without her permission, portions of it used to promote causes she doesn't believe in, etc.) Essentially, if something is recorded for LV, it's got to be totally free of any rights.

What you could do is record them on your own, outside of LibriVox, and upload them to Archive.org with a different Creative Commons license (one that restricts reuse or has other protections).

[Margaret]

Thank you Tricia for the suggestion - I’ll take a look at that.

[barleyguy]

Oh, a random note that books published in 1932 will be in the public domain in the U.S. on January 1st of 2028. That doesn't address the question really, but if you wait 3 and a half years the first book can be recorded by you or anyone else for Librivox.