[bksvol-discuss] Re: Public domain
- From: "Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 10:30:59 -0600
I do know what public domain books are. To me there is a difference between
unethical and illegal and yet another difference in what page wants done
with the books they have done and what I think should be done with them. My
point was only to acknowledge the source of the books just as we are
acknowledged as submitters of what we scan. Book share staff working on
adding those books would still take time away from the more important work
of adding books that can not be obtained from any other source, and as I'm
sure you know, it is unacceptable for bookshare members to submit those
books as if they were their own. Anyone capable of using the bookshare site
should be capable of finding and obtaining the public domain books they want
from the existing online collections.
Sarah Van Oosterwijck
http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 9:24 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Public domain
> Hi. I shouldn't be bothered by the below comment, but this type of
comment
> really upsets me. The reason why is that this shows a lack of
> understanding of what the public domain is. It is called the public
domain
> because it belongs to the public. There is no owner. Technically,
> bookshare can't "take" them as you put it because no one owns them. I'll
> address your other thought below. So to conclude, there is nothing
legally
> or ethically wrong with bookshare, you and I, or anyone else taking the
> books from PG and doing what they want with them. That's the point of
> PG. They say at the top of almost every book that it is for the use of
> anyone anywhere with almost no fees or restrictions. Please read a recent
> PG book to see this. I understand that you are not familiar with the
legal
> definition of public domain, but please try to do a little checking of
your
> facts first. Just a quick glimpse of the PG site would clarify a lot of
this.
>
> At 10:05 PM 3/13/2005 -0600, you wrote:
> >Is it really acceptable for book share to take books from other sources,
> >even if they are in the public domain? I know they can ask for them and
> >would no doubt get them, but taking them is different.
> >
> >My other thought is that most people can convert anything they download
> >in to a format quite usable to them. The main reason for bookshare to
> >provide books in BRF and daisy is that in order to comply with copyright
> >law the material they provide must be in an alternative format. It
> >isn't like HTML and text files aren't accessible and there are free
> >braille translaters available.
>
>
> Please tell me of a free, accessible, easy to use DAISY converter. You
> will probably not find one. You are right about there being free Braille
> translators. You are incorrect that bookshare needs to convert public
> domain books to alternative formats to comply with copyright law. This is
> strictly a service to members. I keep hoping that PG will add native
> Braille translation to their download page but as far as I know it hasn't
> happened. There might be free DAISY converters but I suspect that they
are
> Linux/*nix only, so would not do Windows users much good. APH is working
> on one but it is not free.
>
> Finally, I agree that public domain books should be in a separate section
> of the site. In the past, bookshare hasn't really done that. They have a
> demo link but new public domain books still show up in the new books list
> as regular books do. Again, since the new PG books can be added in a
> completely automated manner, there is no reason to not put them on a
> separate page or group of pages. Just make a new "public domain" category
> for example. I really hope that the staff listens and pays attention to
this.
>
>
>
>
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