Copyright and re-posting to youtube, etc.

[DavidSweeneyBear]

Hi all,

Apologies if this subject has been covered elsewhere...

I am wondering what the status of re-posting to Youtube and similar sites is in terms of "copyright".

I realize that all text on Librivox are in the public domain. Further, the required announcement at the start of each recording states "all Librivox recordings are in the public domain", which effectively waives any copyright Librivox and/or the narrator/producer may have.

So therefore, there is no control on the part of either Librivox or the narrator/producer as to where or how these recordings are used.

This is essentially the "copyleft" or "Creative Commons" principle in action.

Which is all fine --- however there are some things that concern me:

1. Is it not true that the narrator/producer of a work, even though its text is in the public domain, has legal copyright to the actual recording, should they choose to assert it (although obviously not if it's on Librivox under the current arrangement where all rights are waived)?

2. What is the position regarding those who profit from Librivox recordings via, say, a Youtube channel that has close to a million subscribers and various links to Patreon, T-shirts, Affiliate links, etc? It's one thing for others to share these works for no profit, quite another if they are going to profit from them.

3. Does the above threaten the continued growth of Librivox as a free platform?

Your thoughts and comments would be greatfully received.

Many thanks, DSB

[TriciaG]

The recordings are in the public domain. By reading the intro disclaimer, the reader is releasing the recording into the public domain.

People may do ANYTHING with our recordings, because we release them into the public domain. So yes, people can profit off them.

See here: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Copyright_and_Public_Domain
and here: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Why_Public_Domain_and_not_a_Creative_Commons_license%3F
for more information.

So far in our 16 years, we haven't seen this policy threaten LV's growth.

[DavidSweeneyBear]

Thank you for setting out the guiding principals of Librivox!

Good luck to all those selfless individuals who support and contribute to this ideal, and good luck also to all those enterprising individuals who have had the gumption to profit from the wealth of material available.

[BengtW]

You can post them to YouTube but I doubt you will make much money unless you add something to them. Usually YouTube does not monetize material that is not your own creation.

[GraceBuchanan]

good luck also to all those enterprising individuals who have had the gumption to profit from the wealth of material available.

Let us know if you come across anyone attracting many Views on YouTube. According to my small random samples, only our own channel gets much traffic. The people who re-post our recordings get overlooked.

[DavidSweeneyBear]

good luck also to all those enterprising individuals who have had the gumption to profit from the wealth of material available.

Let us know if you come across anyone attracting many Views on YouTube. According to my small random samples, only our own channel gets much traffic. The people who re-post our recordings get overlooked.

Well... since you ask it was actually this channel that "inspired" me to start this post... but, as I say, good luck to them.

https://www.youtube.com/user/GreatestAudioBooks

[GraceBuchanan]

WOW! ! !

They didn't come up in any of my random searches by title or author. Those are surprising numbers! Thanks for sharing what you found. Quite a few familiar covers there...