Some Librivox Recordings On Audible

libraryanne · Post by **libraryanne** » November 10th, 2010, 6:43 am

What have I been missing? You have a blog, Ruth?

I clearly need to read it to stay informed about things.

Betty

gloriana · Post by **gloriana** » November 10th, 2010, 8:50 am

Ruth, I agree completely. I think it's outrageous what they're doing, much more so than the eBay sellers, and LV should at least get some credit - if not some profit sharing. My "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" recording is up there, and even though I realize I placed it in the public domain, I didn't do it so that some jerks could make a profit off it through downloads that users could get for free if only they knew where to look...

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » November 10th, 2010, 9:09 am

This is what I propose to write in response to their offer to give me a bio on that page:

Thanks for the offer, but people might think that I am one of your professional readers. I'd rather a link and blurb giving credit to LibriVox on that page. I haven't yet asked Mark, Mark, John, George and Kristen, but I imagine they would say the same. (Elizabeth, want to add anything here?)

How about:

"Narrators of Classics recordings: LibriVox (http://librivox.org) volunteers make audio books of public domain texts and release these recordings into the public domain for free. Cherry Hill Publishers use these recordings to produce our "Classics" downloads and CDs. Neither LibriVox nor the narrators benefit financially from these sales."
I see that on another page there is an unlinked image, suggesting that LibriVox is one of your partners, like Audible or Amazon. Our volunteers don't seem to like this at all. We put all our recordings in the Public Domain, certainly, but that doesn't make us partners, which suggests some arrangement between us and some benefit for LibriVox.

I am interested in your audio CDs of those classics. Are your professional readers going to record them? I am, of course, assuming that you are not going to try and make audio quality CDs from compressed MP3s.

As Ava says, it is unlikely that they will do it, but eh, what the hell, it's worth a shot.

Ruth

Hokuspokus · Post by **Hokuspokus** » November 10th, 2010, 10:24 am

I like your reply.

What they do is simply unanständig even though it's legal. A link back to LV would make things a little better.

gloriana · Post by **gloriana** » November 10th, 2010, 10:54 am

Please feel free to add my name and say that I am in agreement with your sentiments.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » November 11th, 2010, 3:04 am

I had an answer:

I think your attribution statement is entirely reasonable and we will put it on the website.

Ruth

neckertb · Post by **neckertb** » November 11th, 2010, 3:47 am

Wow, I was about to write "if you don't try it, we'll never know" but I sure was not expecting such a positive answer so soon.
Now we should check they actually do it.

Post by **Availle** » November 11th, 2010, 7:29 am

WOW - well done Ruth!!

catchpenny · Post by **catchpenny** » November 11th, 2010, 10:53 am

Well done Ruth! A little late to chip in, but I think the tone of your letter was very civil and thus aided your case.

gloriana · Post by **gloriana** » November 11th, 2010, 5:41 pm

Rock on, Ruth!

Bead Krazy Dawn · Post by **Bead Krazy Dawn** » November 11th, 2010, 5:48 pm

Excellent work.

CarlManchester · Post by **CarlManchester** » November 12th, 2010, 9:21 am

Well done indeed.

Perhaps we could also let Audible know that we would be perfectly happy for them to make LV titles available in their format and free to their subscribers.

CarlManchester · Post by **CarlManchester** » November 12th, 2010, 9:41 am

To: greatideas@audible.com

Carl had not sent this yet, but he wrote:Hello from LibriVox.

We are a website that offers free audiobooks to download. Being in a similar line of business (apart from the "free" bit, of course, but we don't begrudge you that), perhaps you have already heard of us, but no matter if not.

We have noticed that some LibriVox recordings have been made available through Audible, published by Cherry Hill. Whilst this is perfectly above-board (LibriVox recordings are all dedicated to the public domain), some of our volunteers are concerned that, at $6.96 per book, it may not represent a good deal for your customers, given that there is nothing to tell them that they could easily download the same recording for free.

We think that a great idea might be to make some of the best LibriVox recordings available in your format for free to your subscribers. This would surely be seen as a great perk to Audible membership. You would not need our permission or the permission of our readers in order to do this. Just please go ahead. Our address is librivox.org and we are happy for you to take what you want.

We are open about the fact that our recordings do vary in quality so, if you want us to give you some pointers for exercising quality control, we would be only too happy.

Thanks for your time,
Carl Manchester,
LibriVox.

Lucy_k_p · Post by **Lucy_k_p** » November 12th, 2010, 12:15 pm

Very well done Ruth.

And your letter sounds good too Carl. I would just add a line after saying they don't need our permission saying that we would like to hear about it if they do though, and give them the LV e-mail address.

Hazel Pethig · Post by **Hazel Pethig** » November 15th, 2010, 9:11 am

Good morning, I just searched the entire Cherry Hill website and there is no new mention of the librivox website. Just the same header that was there before. I have to admire everybody's constraint in correspondence with this site. I don't think I could be so polite! I do hope that the librivox disclaimer gets posted, I think it is a great idea. And along with a few others, I do feel ire that others are profiting on the amazing work that has been donated here. But on the other hand, is a sucker is too lazy to take a look around first, perhaps they are just begging to be fleeced!

--Hazel