Librivox paid app in Itunes store

carteki · Post by **carteki** » January 27th, 2015, 12:06 pm

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/librivox-free-audiobooks/id663994262?mt=8

I don't know if this comes from Librivox, but if it doesn't it appears that there is a company that is using the Librivox name and charging people for the app. Not much admittedly, but the name is the property of this group even though the books are in the public domain that doesn't mean that the name Librivox is and this is clearly a case of someone using another persons brand to sell a product (the product being the app, not the content).

Your thoughts?

Post by **TriciaG** » January 27th, 2015, 2:27 pm

The name LibriVox hasn't been officially trademarked, but we are working towards that (or something similar - I don't know the ins and outs of trademarks or whatchacallems).

Post by **annise** » January 27th, 2015, 2:41 pm

I don't really have any trouble with people selling apps for "LibriVox Free Audio Books" - after all people listen in different ways and they pay for MP3 players and they pay to buy a disk if that's how they want to listen, and they pay for a means of listening in their cars, And they pay for their computers. The title makes it clear that the books are free.

Anne

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » January 27th, 2015, 4:13 pm

If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the apps that links up the audiobook with the gutenberg text - so you can follow along as you read. That's a value add which some people may be willing to pay for.

MaryAnn

Post by **dlolso21** » January 27th, 2015, 4:48 pm

Personal thoughts on this specific app - better than others using Librivox in the name/description.

Price: You can books for free to listen to a point, I am not sure what the limit is and it is not listed in the documentation. The $ 0.99 one-time payment for unlimited listening is the lowest purchase price for an app in iTunes and goes to help app development.

Content: This app uses our catalog as the basis for content; the titles are strictly Librivox and nothing else. It also offers a read-along feature which draws from the online text we specify on the Librivox catalog page though some titles are more closely sync-ed than others. There is occasionally additional free content available like a map showing the route for "Around the World in 80 Days" or the Wikipedia page associated with the title.

Function: The menus are easy to understand. It is easy to see what is downloading and to pause the download. There is a sleep timer option. Deleting books and chapters is easy (swipe to the side to see Delete).

David O

kayray · Post by **kayray** » January 27th, 2015, 8:11 pm

carteki wrote:I don't know if this comes from Librivox...

It doesn't. We don't make any apps. (Just wanted to make sure that was clear.)

carteki · Post by **carteki** » February 1st, 2015, 4:52 am

TriciaG wrote:The name LibriVox hasn't been officially trademarked, but we are working towards that (or something similar - I don't know the ins and outs of trademarks or whatchacallems).

I'm not an expert, but a friend made a really useful presentation on trademarks and brands which you can view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhCpFjBb5T0

The way I understand it is that even without a trademark you need to show that you are defending your name, because if you don't, then getting it trademarked isn't worth the expense because without action the legal name doesn't mean anything.
My guess based on the above video is that the first step would be to send a legal letter (are any of our readers lawyers) to people who're using the name in a similar product to say please stop or would you pay us part of the funds raised (royalty fee)? If they don't then defending your name becomes expensive and court action etc will need to follow.