[bksvol-discuss] Re: Public domain
- From: "Sarah Van Oosterwijck" <curiousentity@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2005 22:05:18 -0600
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.
I at least would like the public domain books available from book share
to be in a different category and listing from the for members only
books, since I am usually not looking for old books. I'm not saying
they can't be good, because sometimes I do look for them, and I spent,
or should I say wasted? a lot of time reading stuff from GUTENBERG and
BIBLIOMANIA when I should have been working on stuff for my college
classes. :-)
Sarah Van Oosterwijck
http://home.earthlink.net/~netentity
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 11:40 PM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Public domain
> Hi. According to what Jesse told me at the time, this isn't correct.
It
> is up to bookshare to get new books from PG as they see fit. PG
doesn't
> have the resources to send large amounts of books to any group. If
you
> want a large number of books for free, the best thing is to get the PG
DVD
> or CD. Either are free but of course donations are appreciated. All
the
> PG books are made available on the ftp site or the web within an hour
or
> two of the posting notice being sent, so bookshare or any other site
can
> get them almost immediately. As I mentioned before, there are full
xml
> feeds of their catalog or just the new books, so that is no excuse.
They
> could add the new PG books in a completely automated manner if they
wanted,
> so it would not take any time away from the staff.
>
> Also, the problem with the PG books that are available is that over
time,
> PG has corrected many errors in the text and new editions have been
> released. Bookshare does not have those new editions, so you are
stuck
> with a book that has errors which have already been fixed and
shouldn't be
> there.
>
> Also, you made a comment that PG stuff is too old and doesn't interest
> you. I encourage everyone on this list to please yell at congress
about
> this. The reason why PG books are so old is because of the US
copyright
> law. Everything prior to 1922 is in the public domain. Almost
everything
> after 1922 is not in the public domain and will not be for 70-120
years,
> depending on various circumstances. The Hobbit for example, published
in
> 1937, won't be in the public domain until about 2070. I, PG, and
others
> would love to see the copyright law changed.
>
> Finally, I'll conclude with this thought. The only good reason to
download
> books from bookshare instead of PG, apart from the fact that it might
be
> easier for some people, is that they have DAISY and brf formats while
PG
> doesn't. PG usually adds about 10 new books per day which apparently
will
> never be seen on bookshare, since they have stopped gathering from PG.
I
> found one book in particular from PG about early means of sign
language for
> the deaf, as well as many cookbooks and old magazines, but you will
not
> find them on bookshare. This is too bad, if nothing else because of
the
> DAISY and brf formats that bookshare offers.
>
> At 09:24 PM 3/11/2005 -0800, you wrote:
> >I can't document it, but my understanding is that PG
> >sends books to bookshare in large groups. Maybe
> >bookshare hasn't had a chance to absorb them, yet. And
> >maybe they only want some. I do some work for PG (not
> >as much as before I found bookshare -- just enough so
> >that I don't get dropped) and a lot of that stuff is
> >*very* old and not particularly interesting(at least
> >to me -- partly why I don' t do more) -- but some of
> >it certainly is. I sent in Mark Twain's Eve's Diary to
> >both PG and bookshare.
> >
> >If you find on PG a particular book that is not on
> >bookshare and you'd like it, you could ask for it, I'm
> >sure. Then you could download it in whatever form is
> >easiest for you to read.
>
>
>
>
>
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