Book Uploads Posting Guidelines

[HarryT]

This post summarises the guidelines for posting to this forum section. If we all follow them, it'll make life a lot easier. If you have any comments or suggestions for changes, please feel free to make them.

1. This forum section is for book uploads only, the only exceptions being contributions to the "Sticky" topics at the start of the forum. Any message thread that is not an upload will be moved elsewhere or deleted, as the moderators deem appropriate. The moderators of this forum section are currently Alex Turcic and myself, HarryT.

2. When you upload, you must use a message subject of the form:

Author_surname, Author_firstname (or initials): Book_title. Version. Posting Date

Eg:

Wells, H.G.: The War of the Worlds. v1. 11 Apr 2007

The reason for this is that the thread title is automatically "parsed" to generate the index of eBooks.

3. Please attach your book to the first message in the thread. If you subsequently revise it, edit the first message and re-attach the revised book there, adding a message to the end of the thread to note that you've done so, and saying what the changes are.

4. If you are considering creating a particular eBook, please check before you start whether or not that book has already been uploaded to MobileRead (this can be done by clicking the "E-Books" link on the blue bar near the top of the screen, selecting the "Browse Latest Uploads" option, then selecting the "Search E-Books" link and entering either the title or the author into the search box). If you find that the book has already been uploaded, you are very welcome to upload a new version provided that it "adds" something different to the version already present - this might be a better layout, a new format, significant proof-reading and correction, proper dashes or "curly quotes", for example. If this is the case, when you upload your new version, please add a link to the earlier version (or simply say who the uploader was), and state in the description of your book how it differs from the earlier version.

5. Please respect copyrights, and don't post (or request) anything that's not in the public domain in at least one of the major public domain book collections - eg "Project Gutenberg" (PG) or "Project Gutenberg Australia" - without the clear advance permission of the copyright holder. Any material that clearly infringes copyright will immediately be deleted. Please notify one of the moderators immediately via private message if you believe that an upload does violate copyright.

6. Uploads here should add some notable "value" to a PG (or whatever) original (for example: nice reformatting, artwork, a TOC, footnotes, etc etc). There's really no point in posting here something which which a poster can get from the original source in two minutes.

Thanks!

[HarryT]

What is in the "Public Domain?

As you might expect, it's somewhat complicated.

In most of the world, it's pretty straightforward - things enter the public domain (PD) a certain number of years after the death of the author. In most countries that number is 70 years, in a few (eg Australia) it's 50. That means that, for example, all works of authors who died prior to 1937 (as I write this is 2007) are currently PD in Europe; prior to 1957 in Australia, and that advances, year by year, as you would expect it to (eg next year it'll be 1938/1958).

In the US, the rules are rather more complicated, largely due to the political lobbying done by companies like Disney who are desperate that M. Mouse and co should NEVER enter the public domain.

Basically, in the US:

- Anything published prior to 1923 is PD.
- Anything published between 1923 and 1963, with a copyright notice, for which copyright was NOT specifically renewed, is PD.
- Unpublished works: Author's death + 70 years.
- Pretty much everything else: publication date + 95 years (and this date keeps getting extended as the "danger" approaches of anything new entering PD)

The net result of this is that some stuff is in the PD in the US, but not elsewhere (early works of authors who had LONG lives - eg Agatha Christie), and a LOT of stuff is PD outside the US but not in the US (works of authors published after 1923 who died before 1937/1957).

As the years go by, the balance is shifting - what is PD in the US is a static set of works, whereas elsewhere new material is entering the PD every year.

That, at least, is the basics!

[NatCh]

I'm glad you didn't go for the complicated explanation, Harry -- just that left me feeling even more confused than I normally do!

[HarryT]

It's only complicated in the US; it's pretty straightforward elsewhere.

In the US, stick to books published before 1923, and you're completely "safe". It gets complicated for things published after that - that's when you get into issues of copyright renewals, and all that kind of thing. Prior to 1923, though, and it's guaranteed to be in the public domain (in the US).

This might help to clarify it for you:

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/tra...lic_Domain.htm

[NatCh]

Stupid Disney.

[HarryT]

Unfortunately, in the US, "Mickey Mouse" literally is the whole foundation of copyright law .

[NatCh]

Just goes to show what happens when things are run by a Mickey Mouse Outfit.

[HarryT]

What's basically happened in the US is that, for things published from 1978 onwards, you have a "life + 70" copyright law, just like most of the rest of the world.

Where it differs from other countries is that, almost entirely due to Disney's political lobbying power (which is considerable), you also have a "publication date + 95 years" protection for things published between 1923 and 1978.

What this means is that nothing new will enter the public domain in the US until the year 2018, and things won't start entering the PD under the normal "life + 70" law that everyone else uses until 2048! I wouldn't even get too excited about the 2018 date. What all observers gloomily agree will happen is that, as that date approaches, Congress will simply extend the "publication + 95 years" protection to something longer.

It really is a pretty shocking state of affairs. Effectively, the public domain has been "sealed off" to new work in the US for the foreseeable future. Things might start working normally again in 2048, but that's a long way off.

[readingaloud]

Why is it that you specify that only PRC-format books can be shared here?

For reasons I've stated elsewhere, I think iLiad books in the Mobipocket format are exceptionally ugly, and I avoid them. Now, I don't want to dispute matters of taste, but I don't see why those of us who occasionally spend time producing a good-looking text is some other format shouldn't also share with other iLiad owners.

I format my public domain books in InDesign, and output them as PDFs. I don't know how one produces PRCs (or whether it's even possible on a Mac), but from what I've seen there's relatively little control over the design of the page. I know that PRCs can reflow with different text sizes, but that's a feature I'm willing to do without if it means that I can't make the text look good at any size.

Here's the first chapter of Arnold Bennett's "The Grand Babylon Hotel" as an example. It might not be to all tastes, but I don't see what it would hurt if I posted books in this format, which presumably all iLiad owners can read, and some will prefer.

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

To report a copyright violation you can contact us here.

[RWood]

We have dedicated areas for Sony BBeB/LRF and the Mobi/PRC formats. There is also a catch-all area for everything else where some have already posted PDF for the Sony screen. You are welcome to post your efforts there.

[NatCh]

Simply put, readingaloud, this is the sub section for PRC formatted books, that's why it's PRC only.

PDF's, if you wish to produce and upload them, would be entirely welcome in the Other Books sub section.

[readingaloud]

Well, it is the ONLY thread in the directory "iLiad : iLiad book uploads". I see, now, that there is another path to it, that labels it as you say.

But be that as it may, why should I have to wade through zillions of "other books" to find the relatively small number of iLiad books--isn't the device it's for more important than the format?

[NatCh]

That's a good point, readingaloud. We're still trying to figure out the best way to do things on this, so it's not real surprising that we aren't already doing them the best way, I s'pose.

It might be good to have a way to designate the intended device in the "other books" section ...

... or perhaps a section specifically for formatted PDF's, with some notation as to which display size they're formatted for -- hopefully iLiad won't always be the only 8" screen!

[andym]

Originally Posted by readingaloud

I format my public domain books in InDesign, and output them as PDFs. I don't know how one produces PRCs (or whether it's even possible on a Mac), but from what I've seen there's relatively little control over the design of the page. I know that PRCs can reflow with different text sizes, but that's a feature I'm willing to do without if it means that I can't make the text look good at any size.

Here's the first chapter of Arnold Bennett's "The Grand Babylon Hotel" as an example. It might not be to all tastes, but I don't see what it would hurt if I posted books in this format, which presumably all iLiad owners can read, and some will prefer.

The text is painfully small on my pda. So text reflow may be a feature you can do without but I can't.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by readingaloud

Why is it that you specify that only PRC-format books can be shared here?

For reasons I've stated elsewhere, I think iLiad books in the Mobipocket format are exceptionally ugly, and I avoid them. Now, I don't want to dispute matters of taste, but I don't see why those of us who occasionally spend time producing a good-looking text is some other format shouldn't also share with other iLiad owners.

I format my public domain books in InDesign, and output them as PDFs. I don't know how one produces PRCs (or whether it's even possible on a Mac), but from what I've seen there's relatively little control over the design of the page. I know that PRCs can reflow with different text sizes, but that's a feature I'm willing to do without if it means that I can't make the text look good at any size.

Here's the first chapter of Arnold Bennett's "The Grand Babylon Hotel" as an example. It might not be to all tastes, but I don't see what it would hurt if I posted books in this format, which presumably all iLiad owners can read, and some will prefer.

Remember, MobiPocket is NOT just for the iLiad. It runs under Windows,on the forthcoming Cybook Gen3, PDAs, cell phones, etc. So a MobiPocket formatted file is good for more people then just iLiad owners. You PDF that you've formatted does look nice, but for the Cybook Gen3 or Sony Reader, it's not going to look so nice. Sometimes you do have to think of the greater good. And the greater good says that MobiPocket format is best overall for use with MobiPocket readers.