[bksvol-discuss] Re: Copyrights and synopses
- From: "Jake Brownell" <jabrown@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 04:16:35 -0500
Hey Tony,
When I quote something as being from inside the book, I am actually
pulling out text that the publisher pulled out. Often there is a page at the
beginning of a Hardy Boys book, with a dramatic scene pulled out. This is
the type of thing that would appear on the dust jacket if the book had one.
Also, it is the page most people would glance at when deciding whether to
purchase the book. Therefore I feel that it should be acceptable for users
of BookShare to see it when making the decision to download.
Ditto for anything found on any flap of any book or on the back. This is all
stuff a sited person looks at when checking out a book.
If BookShare.Org Admins request me to stop including this type of stuff I
will gladly but reluctantly comply. The books do go through an approval
process as we all know, so if there was concern the books should have been
kicked back to the download page with a note to remove the offending
material.
I have probably come off sounding very harsh and that is not my intent. I
simply feel quite strongly about the topic. In fact I encourage long long
synopsis as that's what the item is intended for. There is a 500 word limit
for a reason. After all, you don't have to read it, the links to download
the book are conveniently placed above that information.
Jake
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 4:08 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Copyrights and synopses
> Hi all. I have noticed a lot of submitters doing this lately. While I
> understand that they are only trying to be helpful, let me remind you that
> you should not borrow words written by other publications such as the one
> below, New York Times, etc for your long synopsis. Their reviews are
under
> copyright and should not be included. They have a different copyright
> status than the books themselves. The actual books are quoting them and
> that's fine since it qualifies as fair use and directly relates to the
> book. Besides often agreements are made with the publishers or the
> publishing companies own the magazines in which the reviews
> appear. However, quoting them on a long synopsis for bookshare probably
> would not be considered fair use and should be avoided.
>
> Some of you are probably thinking that none of the actual text from the
> book should be included. Technically, you are correct. However, if you
> are only quoting the non-review text from the book jacket, again this
> should qualify as fair use and should be no problem. I am not at all
> trying to pick on Shelley, but this is a recent example below. I have
> noticed that Jake does this also with the Hardy Boys, but with him he
> quotes the "from inside the book" section of the jacket. That is the
> actual book text and should not be used. Besides I personally think it
> makes the long synopsis too long.
>
> In summary, just so there is no confusion, feel free to keep cutting and
> pasting from the actual book jacket. I do this myself. Just be careful
> not to include quotes from other reviewers which may appear. For a really
> good (in my opinion) example of how a long synopsis should be written,
look
> at many of the books submitted by Paul Edwards. He almost never quotes
> from the books themselves but still summarizes the plot. Another good
idea
> is to look at the editorial reviews on amazon.com and paraphrase them, but
> don't quote them directly.
>
> As always, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm talking out of my hat,
> but I don't want to see anyone have legal issues because of including
> copyrighted material covered under a separate copyright that should not be
> included. In reality there is probably nothing to worry about, but it's
> generally better to be conservative when dealing with US copyright law
> since that will avoid many problems.
>
> At 05:05 PM 5/29/2005 -0400, you wrote:
> >"The tension and danger are palpable... readers won't be
> >able to put this one down, as the suspense builds steadily
> >to a dramatic but startling conclusion that may require a
> >hanky or two."-Booklist
>
> Tony Baechler
> Maintainer, goldenaudio.net (TM) online archives
> http://goldenaudio.net/
>
>
>
>
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>
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