Some Books that Aren't in the Public Domain (and why)

Post by **TriciaG** » March 8th, 2012, 1:59 pm

"[This translation, which has been prepared by Ian C. Johnston of
Malaspina University-College, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, is in
the public domain, and may be used, in whole or in part, by anyone,
without permission and without charge, provided the source is
acknowledged. Released October 2002. For comments and suggestions for
improvements, please contact Ian Johnston]"

Seeing that Ian Johnston is still alive (we're told to contact him), I doubt it was published in 1922 or earlier, so it's not a green light Public Domain in the USA.

This also says the text may be used "provided the source is acknowledged" which is problematic for us.

I'm 99.9% sure we cannot use this text.

There's a 1976 translation, but that's under copyright. I don't see any other translations out there.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 8th, 2012, 4:10 pm

The Kafka stories in our catalog were translated by the same Ian Johnston, and I believe we considered that linking to the source text, and crediting him as translator, were sufficient, as he specifies that they are in the public domain.

Ruth

Post by **TriciaG** » March 8th, 2012, 4:17 pm

Oh! Okay. Color me corrected.

Post by **annise** » March 8th, 2012, 4:21 pm

Does that mean it isn't our fault if someone else uses our recordings and doesn't acknowledge him ?

Anne

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 8th, 2012, 4:29 pm

I don't know. But if he wanted to make conditions, perhaps he should have used a suitable CC licence that requires acknowledgement, such as Attribution (CC BY)

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

Ruth

Cori · Post by **Cori** » March 9th, 2012, 3:12 am

I think he's updated some of his translations and used a different licence, I seem to remember seeing a couple of other Kafkas at gutenberg.org that weren't plain public domain and couldn't be recorded. So ... as long as the translation that's being linked to is on a reputable site, clearly stated as PD, I'd think that'd be fine (and have read myself from such a translation.)

BensonBrunswin · Post by **BensonBrunswin** » March 10th, 2012, 12:34 pm

Great, thanks all! I'm going to get started on this project soon.

AnitaGuida · Post by **AnitaGuida** » May 1st, 2012, 7:19 am

Hi, I’m not sure if this is the right place to put this question but here it goes:

I’m looking for books in European Portuguese to read (because as far as I have looked, there are no audio books in European Portuguese, only Brazilian). But then the hard part is to get the text online, because what I can find is either Brazilian or some terrible, full of errors, version of European Portuguese.

Since I understand I have to show the text online (I have a lot of them in paper), I recently found this website which has a lot of books in correct and quality Portuguese. My question is: these books belong to several editors but they are in the free domain. Can I still used them to read?

Here is an example:
“Amor de Perdição” by Camilo Castelo Branco was published in 1862 and the author died in 1890, so it’s on the public domain both in Portugal and USA: http://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/conhecer/biblioteca-digital-camoes/doc_download/1044-amor-de-perdicao.html
But this is an edition of Porto Editora. Can I use it?

Post by **TriciaG** » May 1st, 2012, 7:46 am

I don't think you can use that edition. They're claiming a copyright on it - perhaps they edited it, and thus have claimed copyright on that edition.

If you cannot find an online text, you could scan or take a legible photo of the title and copyright pages on the paper versions you have, zip them, and upload them to the uploader. We'll double check it to make sure it's public domain, and then you can read from the paper copy. It isn't an ideal situation, but sometimes it's the best we can do.

AnitaGuida · Post by **AnitaGuida** » May 1st, 2012, 2:03 pm

Well but that is the same thing isn’t it? I mean, how can I be sure that the copy I have isn’t also editing the text and so has copyrighting of it? Is it suppose to be mentioned in the book somewhere?

After I send the last question I found another website with some Portuguese work (they have the books scaned and free to read) but they say they have copyrighting over the images, not the text. Does that mean I can use it?
Here is what it said about the works:

“Public copies
•Generally, public copies are from works that are in the pubic domain already, meaning that they are no longer copyright protected or are orphan works for which the National Library of Portugal (NLP) could not find, after reasonable research, any right holders. Should you have any information that may help clarifying such cases, please contact bnd@bnportugal.pt.
•However, the digital images are the property pf the National Library of Portugal and may be used freely for private or educational uses only. Using the images for ther purposes requires prior authorization from the NLP, notably for any publishing or distribution purposes, for free or subject to payment.
•Permitted usage does not include any commercial exploitation of the images, which is subject to prior authorization by the NLP. Authorization requests should be addressed to reproducoes@bnportugal.pt. “

Sorry to be such a bother.

Post by **TriciaG** » May 1st, 2012, 2:15 pm

Well but that is the same thing isn’t it? I mean, how can I be sure that the copy I have isn’t also editing the text and so has copyrighting of it? Is it suppose to be mentioned in the book somewhere?

If the work was copyrighted in 1922 or earlier, it is automatically PD in the USA and can be used on LibriVox. The scan or picture would be to verify that the text is from that era.

It sounds to me like that other site you found is usable on LibriVox. Just keep in mind the differences in copyright law - it's possible that not everything on that site is copyright free in the USA, but IS copyright free in Portugal. The best rule of thumb is to use text that was published in 1922 or earlier. Hopefully the site will tell you that, or another site if you research whatever work you want to use.

AnitaGuida · Post by **AnitaGuida** » May 1st, 2012, 2:20 pm

TriciaG wrote:It sounds to me like that other site you found is usable on LibriVox. Just keep in mind the differences in copyright law - it's possible that not everything on that site is copyright free in the USA, but IS copyright free in Portugal. The best rule of thumb is to use text that was published in 1922 or earlier. Hopefully the site will tell you that, or another site if you research whatever work you want to use.

Thank you so much. I’ll Keep that in mind!

asterix · Post by **asterix** » December 25th, 2012, 8:35 am

So Ladies and Gentlemen of the New World Order, once again you are watching your tax dollars put to work by your elected representatives. They can set up a conference in an exotic, comfortable and expensive location for themselves in about ten seconds, but ask them to come up with some consistent legislation on ANYthing and you get a joke like the copyright laws.
Some of Orwell's stuff is PD in Australia. I presume that if it's recorded by someone in Australia for Librivox and located on a computer in Australia, it's OK?
I can access Gutenberg Australia's site and record it, in Canada, USA, or Russia and it's not OK?
That's supposed to make sense?

wildemoose · Post by **wildemoose** » December 25th, 2012, 8:45 am

asterix wrote:So Ladies and Gentlemen of the New World Order, once again you are watching your tax dollars put to work by your elected representatives. They can set up a conference in an exotic, comfortable and expensive location for themselves in about ten seconds, but ask them to come up with some consistent legislation on ANYthing and you get a joke like the copyright laws.
Some of Orwell's stuff is PD in Australia. I presume that if it's recorded by someone in Australia for Librivox and located on a computer in Australia, it's OK?
I can access Gutenberg Australia's site and record it, in Canada, USA, or Russia and it's not OK?
That's supposed to make sense?

Different countries have different copyright laws. That's just the way it is. Everything recorded for LibriVox needs to be in the public domain in the US. You wouldn't be able to record 1984 for LibriVox even if you were in Australia.

Post by **TriciaG** » December 25th, 2012, 10:48 am

I suppose you could record it in Australia, put the LV disclaimer on it and have someone in Australia host it, but we wouldn't be able to put it in our catalog. That would get way too complicated. Also, there would probably be threat of lawsuits since the catalog is hosted in the US as well, even if the files aren't, and it would be offering non-US PD files on it, even if they were linked to the files in Australia.

Our sloppy copyright laws came about over time, not at one exotic conference.

And yeah - maybe when we all come under one world government (the New World Order, dontcha know), we'll have the same, global copyright laws. But for now we have to deal with different countries' laws while surfing a global Internet.