LibriVox Forum

not mine but Esther says on the cd cover

Cover picture from Maria Theresia mit Maske by Martin van Meytens (1744)

Anne

Hi Andre,

Thanks!

Pamela Nagami

And yes, Anne, it was Esther's cover. Maria Theresa holding a mask.

I do have a bit of a problem with the fact that Audiobooks Unleashed (and there are other audiobook publishers using LV) make money out of the hard work carried out by volunteers. That is the problem with Public Domain, anyone can cash in on it. Maybe LV should state that copyright applies if the projects/recordings are being sold commercially. The readers could wave the copyright as long as the recordings were not tampered with in any way and there was no charge being made for the recordings?

I think it would complicate things immensely for us.

What's the point of stating a copyright without any way to defend it? And defending a copyright against violators requires additional expense, which is only justified if there is material compensation to LibriVox...

If somebody feels that expending effort to create audio books for anybody to enjoy (whatever the manifestation of the enjoyment might be, including money, fame, clicks...) is not for them, they're free to just stay out it.

Basically what Tovarisch said.

What you're suggesting, Lurcherlover, is a different Creative Commons license than Public Domain. Public Domain means ANYONE can do ANYTHING with our recordings, including sell them. We don't have the desire (or resources) to enforce any restrictions on our recordings. PD is how the founder of LV decided to release the recordings, and is how every reader releases their recordings (one of the reasons the disclaimer intro is so important to us).

I can understand all of that. Without recourse it is impossible to enforce any copyright. Of course I am aware that objecting to people cashing in on the volunteers hard work - and the choice of walking away, is a fact, and did not need to be made obvious.

I haven't as yet thought too much about leaving LV, but I suppose the "take it or leave it' comment could be enough to push me in that direction. But I hope it doesn't. I will take a little holiday to think about it.

lurcherlover wrote:I do have a bit of a problem with the fact that Audiobooks Unleashed (and there are other audiobook publishers using LV) make money out of the hard work carried out by volunteers.

Volunteers provide one service. I provide another. The public domain exists precisely for that, to provide resources for people to create more stuff without being tied in a legal web of rights and licenses. Readers could just as easily not release their recordings on Librivox and publish them themselves if they want, nobody is stopping them. Also, my understanding is that some readers use their work here to promote their services, they use it to get exposure. And others, like Phil Chenevert, seem to simply enjoy the process of doing the recordings.

Let me say something though. I have no problem with the idea of making money and would certainly like to make more of it, but if anyone thinks I'm swimming in cash with the channel's ad revenue, they are wrong. As of right now, I would have been way, way, WAY better off working a minimum wage job for the hours I spent on the channel.

There is nothing wrong with generating income by spreading these recordings. I don't know if the wording changed, but I recall Librivox explaining to volunteers that they better be ok with people remixing their voice into... adult works... because public domain is public domain. Anyone that has a problem with public domain can quite easily do their own thing, and even try to make money off of it. To each their own.

Our founder used to describe it as "value added" I think people don't really think it through . I man the "help line" email and at least once a week I get someone telling me we are being "ripped off" because someone is selling our recording on ebay . I doubt any of the sellers are getting rich . By the time they download, burn the disks and package and send them I think the price is reasonable. I know of an admin who brought them for her mother when her mother could not longer read , and felt it was well worth the outlay.
And the same with all the apps. It's another way of distribution - we are producers

On the rare occasions people have tried to claim copyright and sell them with no value added on a commercial site , the site has always removed them.

Anne

annise wrote:On the rare occasions people have tried to claim copyright and sell them with no value added on a commercial site , the site has always removed them.

I quite regularly get "copyright claims" on the recordings I upload to youtube. I can't tell if youtube's algos are buggy or if it is a deliberate attempt to cash in on careless uploaders, as the claimant gets to monetize the video. I always dispute the claims as they are nonsensical and always get them retracted, but it gets a bit annoying. Not asking anybody to do anything about it, you just reminded me of it.

By the way, I will be volunteering too. Something small to start with but let's see how it goes.

Welcome to Librivox, audiobooksunleashed!

Pam

So okay, I had an idea and wanted to ask around, see what people think.

So... well, I recently fell madly in love with Sean Michael Hogan's reading of "Ballads of Lost Haven" (https://librivox.org/ballads-of-lost-haven-a-book-of-the-sea-by-bliss-carman/). So much so that I just HAD to remix it with some topical background noise. I think the end result is pretty cool, would appreciate knowing what people think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8vJTfGLhJQ

But the main thing is, I now have this urge/idea of creating some "Campire Stories" compilations, mixing different topical poetry, short stories, myths and etc, all to a campfire background. Heck, just thought of something... what if I set an imaginary spot in the campfire circle for each reader, and adjust the left/right stereo output to make each sound as if he comes from a slightly different place? Hum... not sure if it would work out, will have to test it... anyway...

Since I'll be using public domain background noise, I could send the finished mp3 to Librivox in addition to posting it on the channel. Assuming you guys want it, of course, though I'm not sure how to fit the Librivox disclaimer and etc on something like this, with multiple narrators and works mixed together.

Anyway... that's pretty much it. I haven't gotten around to doing the reading I set out to do as I suffer from a fairly strong depression and I can't quite convince myself that the quality of my recording is worth the trouble. But I would love to contribute with something that I feel actually brings joy to people, especially if I'm already doing it for the channel anyway.

Thoughts?

audiobooksunleashed wrote:
Since I'll be using public domain background noise, I could send the finished mp3 to Librivox in addition to posting it on the channel. Assuming you guys want it, of course, though I'm not sure how to fit the Librivox disclaimer and etc on something like this, with multiple narrators and works mixed together.

We do not allow using the same audio twice in any of our projects.

Availle wrote:

audiobooksunleashed wrote:
Since I'll be using public domain background noise, I could send the finished mp3 to Librivox in addition to posting it on the channel. Assuming you guys want it, of course, though I'm not sure how to fit the Librivox disclaimer and etc on something like this, with multiple narrators and works mixed together.

We do not allow using the same audio twice in any of our projects.

I thought of that... It's alright I guess, just an idea. I suppose in theory a project could be done with this in mind from the start but not sure how practical that is.

And, actually, we have a policy of no sound effects: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Music_%26_Sound_Effects_Rules

Oh well, I'll just do these on my own then. I did a few experiments and I think it sounds really nice.