Audioliterature and Audible

Comments about LibriVox? Suggestions to improve things? News?
Cori
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Post by Cori »

Our founder hugh gives a good summary here: viewtopic.php?p=226651#p226651 (2008) The earliest on-forum discussion I could find is here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=91
There's honestly no such thing as a stupid question -- but I'm afraid I can't rule out giving a stupid answer : : To Posterity and Beyond!
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Ooo, that 2008 summary is VERY good! I'm thinking we should throw it onto a wiki page and point to it when this question arises.

EDIT: Done! It's here: https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php?title=Why_Public_Domain_and_not_a_Creative_Commons_license%3F
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
k5hsj
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Post by k5hsj »

Good catch, Cori, and good decision to make a Wiki of it, Tricia. Hugh's defense of the public domain is eloquent and deserves to be heard. Speaking as one who has expressed irritation at the folks who republish LibriVox recordings without attribution (I don't really mind their making a buck or two, but I'd like to be credited), I am not going to let this irritation prevent me from doing what I really enjoy doing: narrating and editing audiobooks. LibriVox provides me with the structure to publish and publicize my work. Without LibriVox, My words would less likely be heard, as they would be relegated to the great maw of Archive.org audio uploads or lost in the wilderness of internet blogs. Make no mistake, I'm in it for the glory, not the money! :D

By the way, if you want to see how a class act pirates the LibriVox archive, check out www. mp3audiobookclassics. com/. They put the average eBay pirate to shame!

Winston
Be kind. Be interesting. Be useful. Morality ain't hard.--Jack Butler, Living in Little Rock with Miss Little Rock
Availle
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Post by Availle »

You really should remove the direct link here. :D
It will help THEM rank higher in any search engine and give them yet more (unnecessary) exposure.
Cheers, Ava.
Resident witch of LibriVox, channelling
Granny Weatherwax: "I ain't Nice."

--
AvailleAudio.com
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

There - I un-linked it. :)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Peter Why
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Post by Peter Why »

I was looking through that site's catalogue and recognised quite a few of our voices in their samples .... and then found a sample of Three Men in a Boat where they even left our intro in!

https://www.mp3audiobookclassics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=325

They really should have the courtesy to say where they got their recordings from, and ideally who the readers are. Oh well, the world we live in.

Peter
"I think, therefore I am, I think." Solomon Cohen, in Terry Pratchett's Dodger
TheBuriedBook
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Post by TheBuriedBook »

> Without LibriVox, My words would less likely be heard, as they would be relegated to the great maw of Archive.org audio uploads

This is exactly right. LibriVox is unique and special. Not the same as self-publishing.

> Make no mistake, I'm in it for the glory, not the money!

I think that's how many see it. Why might you reject CC-BY as an option plus PD?

> Hugh's defense of the public domain

I read it carefully it mostly focuses on CC-NC (Non-Commercial) issues which we can all agree is non-starter. Not much is said about CC-BY (Attribution), which has low overhead and burden. Also unsaid is the burden and loss of control with PD, as with begging Audible to take books down on ethical grounds. The 2008 post gave many upsides of PD, didn't discuss downsides. And the opposite with CC, giving downsides but not much about the upsides. It positions LV in the Free Culture movement, which is great, but CC is also part of that movement, indeed a foundational core with tools to address exactly these problems. IMO the main issue is that PD is easy for Hugh and the LV organization as it requires little to no legal concern or knowledge. This is clear. The benefit to narrators of a single-license option is less clear IMO.
lurcherlover
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Post by lurcherlover »

I looked at mp3audiobookclassics and they are not that perfect as they frequently gave H G Wells dates as 1850-1894 when 1866-1946 is correct. Unless of course I'm wrong and this is another H G Wells?
Nedge
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Post by Nedge »

Isn't taking free public domain audiomaterial, altering it, and selling it something like snitching a Gideon Bible from a motel room and selling it at a yard sale? It just doesn't seem cool.
"Ready, willing, and vaguely competent." -- Sandra Boynton, 2021
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

Maybe not cool, but not illegal. :)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
SonOfTheExiles
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Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by SonOfTheExiles »

True, definitely not cool.

Though it could be said that the Good Book, by hook or by crook, would be moving amongst those who need it most.

“... His wonders to perform.”

Perhaps we should regard our own lesser works in a similar light?


Chris
Currently on sabbatical from Librivox
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