LibriVox Forum

H. Beam Piper is #59 in the Gutenberg top 100 authors for the last 30 days, ahead of the likes of O. Henry, Bierce, Darwin, James, Hugo, Stoker, Shaw and other luminaries. E.E. Smith is #54.

Seems folks like this stuff...will continue to accommodate.

The first (at last) 10 entries are usually spam driven so this is better than it looks.

Subspace Survivors by E. E. Smith
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21647

2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21279

Gambler's World by John Keith Laumer
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21627

Tarrano the Conqueror by Raymond King Cummings
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21638

Greg Weeks

How do you find out if a book you like is in the public domain? There's a classic sci-fi from 1947 by Ward Moore, named "Greener Than You Think" that I'd love to do. It's been published by a company whose other titles are all of books in the public domain, but since it's from 1947, I can't be sure.

Anybody know how to verify the status of books this recent, other than waiting to see if they pop up on Gutenberg? Gutenberg itself must have some means besides watching itself.

ohsostrange wrote: Anybody know how to verify the status of books this recent, other than waiting to see if they pop up on Gutenberg? Gutenberg itself must have some means besides watching itself.

Rule 6.

http://copy.pglaf.org/rule6-new.txt

Greg Weeks

gweeks wrote:
Rule 6.

http://copy.pglaf.org/rule6-new.txt

Greg Weeks

Thanks

ohsostrange wrote:How do you find out if a book you like is in the public domain? There's a classic sci-fi from 1947 by Ward Moore, named "Greener Than You Think" that I'd love to do. It's been published by a company whose other titles are all of books in the public domain, but since it's from 1947, I can't be sure.

It appears to have been first published by William Sloane in NY in 1947. The Ballantine edition is abridged. You would probably need an original to clear it with PG. A quick check didn't find a renewal. You would need better bibliographical information than I used as well.

Greg Weeks

I decided the easiest tack to take would be to ask the publishers of the most recent edition--their version is out of print, so maybe they won't mind telling me.

Poop. They just emailed me back--it's still under copyright. They gave me the name and address of the agency that handles his titles. So I can just give up on that idea.

ohsostrange wrote: Poop. They just emailed me back--it's still under copyright. They gave me the name and address of the agency that handles his titles. So I can just give up on that idea.

That's what they're going to say regardless of if it is or not. If you press for renewal details they'll just stop talking to you.

Greg Weeks

I'd suggest PMing thistlechick, giving as many details as you can of author, publication date, etc.

On my very basic run through the process outlined on our copyright wiki page, I didn't turn up any evidence of a renewal. If that's correct, so as long as you could read from a version printed in 1947, it'd be quite acceptable here.

Ward Moore has three items in the copyright renewals database, but none of them are this one. That only covers "Class A book renewals" and I wouldn't know one of those from my elbow ... but ... it's an encouragement, methinks.


(Edited to add: I think there are some '47 editions for sale, and there's also 70 copies dotted through US University libraries according to WorldCat; if you have access to any of those, might be worth a try. And even local libraries have some unsuspectingly useful content, so good to check out their catalogues too.)

Cori wrote: (Edited to add: I think there are some '47 editions for sale, and there's also 70 copies dotted through US University libraries according to WorldCat; if you have access to any of those, might be worth a try. And even local libraries have some unsuspectingly useful content, so good to check out their catalogues too.)

Carnegie Mellon right next to me has a copy. I don't have checkout privileges, but I can go in on a Saturday and scan it. I don't know when I'll have a Saturday free. If you want it quickly you'll need your own copy. If you're not in a hurry I can probably ship scans off to you in a few months.

Greg Weeks

gweeks wrote:
2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21279

Greg Weeks

This will probably be the last weekend I can record for a couple of months due to some home remodeling, so I'll try to get this one in the can while I can. I guess I'll submit to a short story collection, or save it for later.

I've done some short scifi's for another podcast, too. If he's OK with it, maybe I can put them all together for LV as a little scifi shorts collection afterwards.

gweeks wrote:

ohsostrange wrote:How do you find out if a book you like is in the public domain? There's a classic sci-fi from 1947 by Ward Moore, named "Greener Than You Think" that I'd love to do. It's been published by a company whose other titles are all of books in the public domain, but since it's from 1947, I can't be sure.

It appears to have been first published by William Sloane in NY in 1947. The Ballantine edition is abridged. You would probably need an original to clear it with PG. A quick check didn't find a renewal. You would need better bibliographical information than I used as well.

I have a copy of this acquired via ILL. I will be scanning the book and filing a clearance request with PG. Once I get the book scanned I'll make the scans available if you want to read from them.

Greg Weeks

gweeks wrote:

gweeks wrote:

ohsostrange wrote:How do you find out if a book you like is in the public domain? There's a classic sci-fi from 1947 by Ward Moore, named "Greener Than You Think" that I'd love to do. It's been published by a company whose other titles are all of books in the public domain, but since it's from 1947, I can't be sure.

It appears to have been first published by William Sloane in NY in 1947. The Ballantine edition is abridged. You would probably need an original to clear it with PG. A quick check didn't find a renewal. You would need better bibliographical information than I used as well.

I have a copy of this acquired via ILL. I will be scanning the book and filing a clearance request with PG. Once I get the book scanned I'll make the scans available if you want to read from them.

The clearance request is filed with PG.

Greg Weeks

Oh my gosh! I might still get to do Greener Than You Think??

It didn't even occur to me that the publishing company would lie. Especially since they've stopped printing the book themselves, so a free audio book wouldn't even be competing with them for sales.

Plus, they told me how to get in touch with the agency that represents his titles.

How can an agency handle the rights for a book that isn't under copyright any more?