Librivoxing non-Librivox books

FNH · Post by **FNH** » March 10th, 2009, 2:10 pm

Now here's a thought. If someone records a book and puts it in the public domain, but they and it are not part of Librivox, what are peoples feelings about including it in the cat-a-log here.

Librivox is THE source for free audio books so it might well be a good fit.

Thoughts?

.

harvey · Post by **harvey** » March 10th, 2009, 3:15 pm

It seems a reasonable idea to consider. Here are some considerations:

Quality control: will LibriVox proof-listen the other audio books?
(For example, one set of audio books I got from Project Gutenberg had
a number of repeated words and sentences.)
Attribution: will the catalog distinguish "domestic" from "foreign" products?
There won't be a LibriVox disclaimer. Will there be something similar?
Does it matter?
Storage: unless the files are copied or transferred to archive.org,
this would open up the catalog to the nightmare of maintaining links
to multiple other sites.
Storage: a possible alternative to archive.org is Project Gutenberg,
since it seems to accept lower resolution files than does archive.org.
(see next point)
File format characteristics: how many will be 128 Kbps at 44,100 Hz?
For example, some of the audio books at Project Gutenberg are
available only in 16 Kbps @ 11 KHz or 32 Kbps @ 22 KHz resolutions.
Administrative: what will be the response if the reader objects to
having their work in the LibriVox catalog (however inconceivable that
possibility might seem)?

Post by **annise** » March 10th, 2009, 3:55 pm

Do you have something particular in mind ? There seem to be various degrees of "Public Domainess" arouand Librivox is pretty fussy about the book and the reading being PD and the disclaimer being on every file so I'm not sure that it would work.

Anne

harvey · Post by **harvey** » March 10th, 2009, 4:29 pm

annise wrote:Librivox is pretty fussy about the book and the reading being PD
and the disclaimer being on every file so I'm not sure that it would work.

A partial solution would be a second, "as is" catalog for non-LibriVox works.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » March 10th, 2009, 5:25 pm

This is rather like the discussion a few months ago about the establishment of a central catalogue of free audio books (here). My question would be who would do it?

Our own admin work is necessary, obviously, but adding non-Librivox recordings to the catalogue would entail a lot of tedious copyright checking and admin work, and it's not the best use of our time, imho. I'm here because I love recording audiobooks.

Ruth

BellonaTimes · Post by **BellonaTimes** » March 12th, 2009, 6:05 pm

Archive.org's library donations have thousands of books, mostly non-fiction I've noticed, that are in the public domain. The Biodiversity Library for instance, and those of various universities. How much non-fiction does Librivox cover?

Post by **TriciaG** » March 12th, 2009, 6:21 pm

How much non-fiction does Librivox cover?

If it's public domain, previously published, and someone wants to read it, LV can do it.

At least, that's the sense I get.

Steampunk · Post by **Steampunk** » March 12th, 2009, 6:34 pm

TriciaG wrote:
How much non-fiction does Librivox cover?
If it's public domain, previously published, and someone wants to read it, LV can do it.

At least, that's the sense I get.

Absolutely.

Specifically:

What Sorts of Texts Can Be Recorded for LibriVox

published books that are in the public domain in the USA

published short works that are in the public domain: (essays, newspaper articles, short stories, poems etc)

government documents that are in the public domain

texts of notable speeches that are in the public domain

"notable" texts that have not been published, but are in the public domain (eg. unpublished letters of notable people, unpublished short stories, essays etc by published authors)

What Sorts of Texts CANNOT Be Recorded for LibriVox

texts that are still under copyright in the USA

self-published novels, short stories, poems, essays etc

Some care should be given to sites like GoogleBooks, Archive.org, etc. to assure the work in question is truly Public Domain in the US. Gutenberg.org is often considered the preferred source since they have a pretty strict vetting process before they release something as PD. That's not to say other sources shouldn't be used, but some additional research is wise.

Jim

BellonaTimes · Post by **BellonaTimes** » March 12th, 2009, 7:54 pm

Those biodiversity books are a trip, and a researcher's (one of my hobbies) goldmine. There's no wiki on botanist Robert Buist (re the group project I'm BC on) but I found this book of horticulture magazines from 1880 that has his obit and bio. Then found a NYT obit from 1913 I think for Buist's son who by then was a millionaire in the seed business his dad started. Oh, and there was a little blurb in there about Buist, Jr's daughter having eloped the year before which caused a minor scandal. I guess I'm gonna have to join Wikipedia to create a Buist page. Or is that ethical? I mean, he was pretty influential in his day, including introducing the poinsettia to the States.

Go to the Biodiversity Library section and do a search on your state or country and see how many books & periodicals you can pull up. Found about 20 for Florida. Would love to find something like a journal kept by Winslow Homer when he was painting down here.

Cori · Post by **Cori** » March 13th, 2009, 10:46 am

Replying to this here, since I think it was posted in the wrong thread:

FNH wrote:Here's an example. A non librivox book. Could it just be linked in the cat-a-log?

http://www.archive.org/details/LovecraftKadath

No, unfortunately it's not in the public domain in the US.

I don't think we should have anything non-LibriVox in the catalogue. Anything externally produced would have to be checked so carefully, with our best understanding of the law (given we're mostly not lawyers) -- both for text public domainness, and to confirm that the licence given at archive.org is accurate (not all are, and many more just don't have any indication at all.) Add to that the time for prooflistening every piece (to make sure it's more or less faithful to a public domain text and that there's no copyright music sneaking in, and so on) plus the actual cataloguing ... and I think the whole issue is a timesink and potential can of worms I'd strongly suggest LibriVox didn't take on.

That said, I'm completely for having a central catalogue of free audiobooks, something like texts have via the Online Books Page at UPenn. I just don't think LibriVox itself is really set up to create that, and I don't think it fits with how I understand our mission, which is to record everything that's in the public domain. Our focus is on producing the books, and not so much on cataloguing, filing, access and so on ...

Post by **TriciaG** » March 13th, 2009, 7:19 pm

And doesn't LV linking to non-LV works defeat the purpose of LV? If I recall correctly, doing the READING is the main purpose of LV, not necessarily provide access to them.

Ah - here it is: "Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books."

If a book is already a free audio book out there somewhere, then it seems to me that there isn't much need for LV to provide it (or link to it), unless someone here wants to read it. And the goal also says that the books are to be public domain.

I'm just rambling, so don't mind me too much.

BellonaTimes · Post by **BellonaTimes** » March 13th, 2009, 7:41 pm

2 questions re this:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Double-Indemnity.html

Is this 1944 script by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler public domain?

and

If it isn't, how are they able to post it on that site?

(yes, I watched the movie on TCM tonight

)

Jc · Post by Jc » March 13th, 2009, 8:47 pm

BellonaTimes wrote:2 questions re this:

http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Double-Indemnity.html

Is this 1944 script by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler public domain?

and

If it isn't, how are they able to post it on that site?

(yes, I watched the movie on TCM tonight )

Q1: probably not
Q2:

Disclaimer
Section 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

All scripts on this site are educational purposes only. None of the scripts are/or will be sold by IMSDb.com.