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.

[hapax legomenon]

1. If I am the copyright owner and would like to upload a creative commons ebook, can I do so here?

2. My ebook is a collection of tasteful erotica stories. A small number are X rated, but most are PG and sometimes R rated.

It's not that big of a deal if I can't; still if you won't allow it, it would be nice to have a section where copyright owners can announce new ebooks and where to download them from.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hapax legomenon

1. If I am the copyright owner and would like to upload a creative commons ebook, can I do so here?

Certainly.

2. My ebook is a collection of tasteful erotica stories. A small number are X rated, but most are PG and sometimes R rated.

Not a problem. As long as it's legal, and you make it clear what the contents are, that's fine.

It's not that big of a deal if I can't; still if you won't allow it, it would be nice to have a section where copyright owners can announce new ebooks and where to download them from.

Please go ahead!

[hapax legomenon]

Great. I'll be uploading soon!

Here's another question.

I'll be hosting the ebook anthology on several sites, although this will probably be the first place I upload it to.

Is there any way to gauge the number of downloads from a particular ebook (for mobipocket vs. lrf, for example).

[RWood]

Originally Posted by hapax legomenon

Is there any way to gauge the number of downloads from a particular ebook (for mobipocket vs. lrf, for example).

Yes, next to each downloadable file icon there is a counter indicating how many times that file has been downloaded. Here is an example (of Harry's Sherlock Holmes Omnibus) that shows how many times each version has been downloaded.

We always put the download in the first post of the thread to keep people from having to search the whole thread. When new versions are created they can either be added as it was in this case or the old one can be deleted and the new one added. When it is deleted most times the poster will add a note as to how many times the prior version(s) have been downloaded.

I hope this helps.

[Roberts324]

Originally Posted by 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.

My reaction comes a very long time after your message, but I feel it is necessary to be more precise in explanations than that - if you do not want to mislead your audience.

First, the link you gave is very informative and should be studied by people interested in this copyright stuff:

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

Then, it must be said that the big majority (at least 85%, according to experts) of what was published after 1923 and before 1963 was either published or republished without a copyright notice, or did not see its copyright renewed after 28 years - which implies that all those works are in the American Public Domain, and have been for a long time.

The net consequence is that there is very little risk to infringe copyrights with texts from the thirties or the forties; the burden of proof should belong to copyright owners, but it is indeed possible to check e.g. that copyrights were not renewed in due time, because there are list of copyright renewals available to the public and on the internet. This is what Project Gutenberg does; for instance, they recently published works by Robert F. Young, who dies in 1986 - twenty years ago - that are in the public domain for one of the above reasons. The work was published in 1954, I think, and must have been protected until 1982...

This is why I fell that saying "only use pre-1923 texts and you'll be safe" appears to me to be an excessive statement. I believe it is the reponsibility of the public to make sure that works in the PD by law are asserted as such.