General Book Uploads Posting Guidelines

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

This site does not follow the US rules which is what you are quoting. The site owner is worried about His personal liability and thus we use his rules. Check our wiki for Copyright and the page MobileRead.

Dale

Ok, thanks. I was guessing that it's life+70 given the location of the server but I didn't see it specifically stated in this thread.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Ok, thanks. I was guessing that it's life+70 given the location of the server but I didn't see it specifically stated in this thread.

The Notices at the top of every page in this thread isn't specific?

(Although the date could ude some updating.)

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The Notices at the top of every page in this thread isn't specific?

(Although the date could ude some updating.)

There isn't anything in this particular thread about life+70 being the rule for uploads, that is, this thread we're reading titled "General Book Uploads Posting Guidelines." But yes, in all of the threads where a book has been uploaded it's there. What was sort of perplexing to me is, for example, the second post in the thread we're in, from HarryT titled "What is in the Public Domain?" where he explains the complexity of the copyright laws in the US. Perplexing because, on the one hand, the US laws don't matter for what's legal to upload here. But on the other hand, if I'm in the US, then I should know what's legal for me to download to my computer before I work on it and upload it here.

And then to add to my confusion, I saw some books on Project Gutenberg (which seems to follow the US copyright laws) where the author had died in the 1970s but were published in that period where they needed to have their copyright renewed and hadn't so they're PD. Being literal minded and with this thread talking about public domain, I was wondering perhaps if I could upload them and there is a different disclaimer for uploaded books that are public domain in the US. Which in retrospect doesn't make sense (now that I think about it) because the MobileRead server is in Switzerland (or Germany) so they have to conform to those laws.

[j.p.s]

OK, I see that is confusing (but I still insist the "Notice" is at the top of every page in this particular thread, if not inside the over 12 year old posts at the start of the thread). Sometime in the years after the first posts and some years before now, the locations of mobileread servers changed from North America to Europe. Maybe a moderator or HarryT himself can be persuaded to add a message at the top of the first 2 posts that the information in those posts is somewhat obsolete.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

OK, I see that is confusing (but I still insist the "Notice" is at the top of every page in this particular thread, if not inside the over 12 year old posts at the start of the thread). Sometime in the years after the first posts and some years before now, the locations of mobileread servers changed from North America to Europe. Maybe a moderator or HarryT himself can be persuaded to add a message at the top of the first 2 posts that the information in those posts is somewhat obsolete.

Even though I was reasonably sure that life+70 is the rule for uploads I wanted to ask the question so that anyone else like me who saw this thread and was wondering and assumed that this thread would have the answer may hopefully now see this answer. To me this is a bit of an odd thread since it never has, until now, explicitly said that the rule is life+70 (ignoring, for the sake of argument, that the uploads all have that notice on them). And it's a prominent thread.

[pdurrant]

I've tweaked the first two posts. Please let me know if you think I've got anything wrong.

[kcarscadden]

PDurrant, HarryT,

I think it would be useful to update post #2 to change the 1st para to:

For the purposes of MobileRead, only works where the author has been dead for 70 or more years are in the public domain. For example, in 2019, that's works where the author (and translator or illustrator if applicable) died before 1949. The reason for this is that the Mobileread servers are located in Europe, and Mobileread's owner wishes to follow Europe's copyright rules.

I think this change would be helpful for others, like me, that were confused by the following paragraphs that talked about, for example, U.S. rules, and then I couldn't find anything relevant in the thread until post #89.

Edited to add: I see this is discussed in various ways in many other postings on this forum, but I still think it would be useful to update this thread.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by kcarscadden

PDurrant, HarryT,

I think it would be useful to update post #2

You're right. I'll take a look. [edit] Done.

[j.p.s]

How about the Notice at the top of the page that says:

Please don't upload any book unless its author died before 1st Jan 1945, or it is licensed for free distribution

[JSWolf]

And what else is needed to be added that eBook released under Creative Commons are also allowed.

[graycyn]

If an American author died in 1949, all his work is eligible for MobileRead upload, even if still under copyright in the United States, correct?

The author in question is Thomas C. Hinkle (1876–1949), children's western dog and horse story writer. I did not find any of his work on MobileRead, and I have a number of his early horse titles I could do.

Is there any issue with a title that was published posthumously, a year after the author's death? One of his titles that I have was first published in 1950.

One other question, I needed a cover image, so I found a suitable photo on Unsplash.com to work with. The Unsplash license is generous, you can modify and use the images however you want as long as you aren't selling them or compiling them for another similar site.

https://unsplash.com/license

So is creating a cover with an Unsplash.com image OK with MobileRead?

(Note: I'm still plugging my way proofreading against print on Under the Lilacs, that project's not gone by the wayside, it's just my eyes HATE reading print and it goes slow. I thought this simpler book might be a way for people to see if I've generally done OK with code/formatting.)

[pdurrant]

There was a thread about posthumous works. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=50553

But yes, if the author died in 1949, all their published works are in the public domainin the UK and EU. And I think that, since it's more than 70 years since 1950, a posthumous work published in 1950 is also in the public domain in the UK and EU.

And by the looks of it, covers baseed on unsplash photos are fine.

Feel free to upload to Mobileread.

[graycyn]

Great! Doing some final tweaking and testing today, hopefully can upload tomorrow or sometime this coming week.

One more question, regarding ARTWORK!

On one of the earlier Hinkle titles I have, Hurricane Pinto, I am lucky enough to have the old dust jacket. The trouble is, there is NO signature, NO obvious artist mark, and NO attribution to be found. Does one then simply have to leave the art out for upload to MR or is it OK to scan and put it in? I'd rather not use a generic cover if it's OK to have the original art, seeing how scarce the old original dust jackets are!

Another, Tornado Boy, there appears to be a kind of artist mark on all 4 interior illustrations, looks like one large horizontal oval pebble with two pebbles beneath. I've been trying to ID that, but so far, no luck. The jacket art has no mark at all, but style is similar to the interior illustrations.

Cinchfoot has a jacket signature, J. A. Taylor, but I've not been able to track that down to a likely suspect. The book was first published in 1938 if anyone else has any ideas as to that artist's possible identity.

[pdurrant]

The UK government says:

Anonymous or pseudonymous works (Works of unknown authorship)
In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, the use of a work is allowed where it is not possible to ascertain the identity of the author. It must be reasonable to assume that copyright has expired, or the author died over 70 years ago.

So how likely is it that the artist (whoever they were) died more than 70 years ago?

I'd recommend leaving them out. Sorry.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The UK government says:

Anonymous or pseudonymous works (Works of unknown authorship)
In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, the use of a work is allowed where it is not possible to ascertain the identity of the author. It must be reasonable to assume that copyright has expired, or the author died over 70 years ago.

So how likely is it that the artist (whoever they were) died more than 70 years ago?

I'd recommend leaving them out. Sorry.

That's more or less what I figured was likely, but had to ask.

There's just no way to know death date without a name. And I can't assume it's reasonable that the artist would have died over 70 years ago, because the artist for Hinkle's 1929 title, Black Storm, of which I have a first edition, *is* known, thanks to signatures on the interior illustrations (J. Clinton Shepherd), and *he* didn't die until 1975!

I'll have to see what I can do. Maybe I can find suitable horse photos on Unsplash.com (Got lucky once! ), or if not, perhaps a generic title/author on background style cover for those works.

Back to polishing/testing the first title, Dapple Gray.