Google never had plans to do that. From the outset, Google always said it was just scanning the books to make them searchable, not downloadable (save for works in the public domain).
Making orphan works available was the Authors Guild's idea, but it was shot down by the judge because the AG didn't have sufficient authority to make that kind of deal.
Wrong. The US didn't join the Berne Convention until 1989. All the books in question entered the US public domain due to time-since-publication in the 1960s and 70s. Once a work has entered the US public domain, it stays there even if copyright periods are later lengthened. You can't lengthen a public domain book's copyright retroactively.
If publishers thought they could get away with closing down the libraries, I don't doubt for one second that they'd try it. They just have the little problem that the concept of public lending libraries pre-dates the modern "where's my money?" era by such a degree that it's effectively grandfathered in. (Same for second-hand bookstores. But boy, you should have heard them yelp when Amazon started listing used books next to new!)
If we take the question seriously, lending books for free in libraries isn't as much of a threat to giving them away free in perpetuity because library books wear out (or expire and require a new purchase after a set number of loans, in the case of library ebooks), and can only be loaned to so many people at once. And they can't be kept forever (unless you crack the DRM on library ebooks, of course), so if you want your own copy of the book you're going to have to buy it. (Or crack the DRM.) There are differences there.
No, you're wrong. Even all the way back in 2004, Google was talking about making books easy to search, not making them available for free. Making them available was the Authors Guild's idea.
Getting to see the books is not what Google Books is for. It was never what Google Books was for. You've bought into the fallacy promoted by the Authors Guild, who came in after the fact and tried to wangle their lawsuit against Google Books into an orphaned-works library without actually having any authority to do so. Google shrugged and went along with it, because why not, but it was never what they had intended.
From the very beginning, Google Books (nee Google Print) was intended to populate a search database so people could search within paper books as easily as they could search within the web. If the book was still in copyright, then finding that book to read was the searcher's problem. (Interlibrary loan works a treat.) Google was very straightforward about that in early blog posts and publicity about the project. Don't blame them for falling short of the Authors Guild's goals. Those goals were never theirs to begin with. See the link in the first paragraph for more information.
That's why the comment track is released all by itself. People have to get the original content separately and then play them both at the same time. Same way Rifftrax does its thing. That's perfectly legit under copyright law. Even if it's a derivative work, it falls under the review-and-criticism fair use right.
Indeed, as I have cause to mention in the commentary track.:) AnimEigo used the alternate English rendering "Rupan."
(That alternate English rendering makes it a little more understandable why there's an album of romantic Lupin III music called "Isn't it Lupintic". In Japanese, the pronunciation of "Lupintic" is similar enough to "Romantic" to make it work as a pun.)
After a few years, when more of the Arsène Lupin works had entered the public domain, the renaming wasn't seen as necessary and subsequent releases went back to his original name.
It might make a little more sense distilled into this article, which I wrote for another blog afterward to discuss the matter.
Effectively, the original Maurice Leblanc Arsène Lupin stories borrowed Sherlock Holmes, much to Conan Doyle's annoyance. Subsequently, manga writer Monkey Punch based Lupin III on the Leblanc stories without permission, much to the Leblanc estate's later annoyance. (He was able to get away with it because Japan didn't honor trade copyrights at the time, and the Leblanc estate didn't even find out until years later.) Castle of Cagliostro drew on the Leblanc stories and the Lupin III franchise, and a number of other works, and inspired countless other works that borrowed from it in return.
And it never would have happened if the rights holders had been able to shut Leblanc and Monkey Punch down.
Cory Doctorow wears the habitual rose-colored glasses of the impassioned activist, so I tend to take what he says with more than a few grains of salt. Nonetheless, it's nice to hear a little optimism even if it may be largely unfounded. We'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.
Lots of people from the original are involved. It's just that they're mostly involved as writers, rather than in-front-of-the-camera personalities (barring a few amusing cameos).
I don't get the sense that there's any animosity between them. In fact, Rifftrax has done a lot to help boost the new season of the show, including giving away Rifftrax videos to backers of the Kickstarter, and of course hosting a MST3K reunion show gathering together as many of the alumni who are still interested in doing riffs as they could get their hands on. I imagine that Rifftrax is enough of a full time job that they don't really have time to spare for the other stuff.
I've also noticed that Rifftraxers Bill Corbett and Mary Jo Pehl are both on writing staff for some of the episodes, too.
Actually, you can earn multiples of 10 pokecoins per day. Every 21 hours, you can get 10 coins for every gym you control at the end of the 21-hour countdown timer. I've never managed to have more than 2 or 3 at a time when that happened, but I expect when I get some more powerful critters I'll be able to do better.
The problem as I see it is two-fold: first, the sudden presence of about a zillion just-as-good-as-the-original digital media files up for resale would collapse the market and put publishers out of business.
Second, and more importantly, there's no way to prevent people from cracking the DRM on their e-books and backing them up before selling the DRM-locked original. You can crack the DRM on library books now just as easily as you can the ones you buy from Amazon. I don't see that changing.
Slashdot Mirror
Google never had plans to do that. From the outset, Google always said it was just scanning the books to make them searchable, not downloadable (save for works in the public domain).
Making orphan works available was the Authors Guild's idea, but it was shot down by the judge because the AG didn't have sufficient authority to make that kind of deal.
Wrong. The US didn't join the Berne Convention until 1989. All the books in question entered the US public domain due to time-since-publication in the 1960s and 70s. Once a work has entered the US public domain, it stays there even if copyright periods are later lengthened. You can't lengthen a public domain book's copyright retroactively.
I thought space radar was capable of keeping track of things as small as flecks of paint. How can any satellite be too small for it?
Actually, in providing a way to search inside printed books, Google is providing a very useful innovation indeed.
Actually, I'm writing stories about it.
If publishers thought they could get away with closing down the libraries, I don't doubt for one second that they'd try it. They just have the little problem that the concept of public lending libraries pre-dates the modern "where's my money?" era by such a degree that it's effectively grandfathered in. (Same for second-hand bookstores. But boy, you should have heard them yelp when Amazon started listing used books next to new!)
If we take the question seriously, lending books for free in libraries isn't as much of a threat to giving them away free in perpetuity because library books wear out (or expire and require a new purchase after a set number of loans, in the case of library ebooks), and can only be loaned to so many people at once. And they can't be kept forever (unless you crack the DRM on library ebooks, of course), so if you want your own copy of the book you're going to have to buy it. (Or crack the DRM.) There are differences there.
Wow, an Anonymous Coward saying something that makes sense. Now I have seen everything. :)
No, you're wrong. Even all the way back in 2004, Google was talking about making books easy to search, not making them available for free. Making them available was the Authors Guild's idea.
And also, this one.
No, Google never wanted to distribute those works for free. (Except the public domain ones.) That was the Authors Guild's idea.
See my comment further down the thread, and the link therein.
Getting to see the books is not what Google Books is for. It was never what Google Books was for. You've bought into the fallacy promoted by the Authors Guild, who came in after the fact and tried to wangle their lawsuit against Google Books into an orphaned-works library without actually having any authority to do so. Google shrugged and went along with it, because why not, but it was never what they had intended.
From the very beginning, Google Books (nee Google Print) was intended to populate a search database so people could search within paper books as easily as they could search within the web. If the book was still in copyright, then finding that book to read was the searcher's problem. (Interlibrary loan works a treat.) Google was very straightforward about that in early blog posts and publicity about the project. Don't blame them for falling short of the Authors Guild's goals. Those goals were never theirs to begin with. See the link in the first paragraph for more information.
Indeed. And the original article did discuss both writing in Word formats and printing stuff as well.
That's why the comment track is released all by itself. People have to get the original content separately and then play them both at the same time. Same way Rifftrax does its thing. That's perfectly legit under copyright law. Even if it's a derivative work, it falls under the review-and-criticism fair use right.
And, for that matter, Disney recycled the climactic fight scene from Cagliostro into the climax of The Great Mouse Detective. :)
Indeed, as I have cause to mention in the commentary track. :) AnimEigo used the alternate English rendering "Rupan."
(That alternate English rendering makes it a little more understandable why there's an album of romantic Lupin III music called "Isn't it Lupintic". In Japanese, the pronunciation of "Lupintic" is similar enough to "Romantic" to make it work as a pun.)
After a few years, when more of the Arsène Lupin works had entered the public domain, the renaming wasn't seen as necessary and subsequent releases went back to his original name.
Sounds like a pretty cool idea. I do hope you'll check out my own commentary track, too. :)
I think he was complaining that I was called Slashdot reader #14,247 rather than Slashdot member or participant #14,247.
(And now I find myself wanting to sing, "...I'm Jean Valjean!" :) )
It might make a little more sense distilled into this article, which I wrote for another blog afterward to discuss the matter.
Effectively, the original Maurice Leblanc Arsène Lupin stories borrowed Sherlock Holmes, much to Conan Doyle's annoyance. Subsequently, manga writer Monkey Punch based Lupin III on the Leblanc stories without permission, much to the Leblanc estate's later annoyance. (He was able to get away with it because Japan didn't honor trade copyrights at the time, and the Leblanc estate didn't even find out until years later.) Castle of Cagliostro drew on the Leblanc stories and the Lupin III franchise, and a number of other works, and inspired countless other works that borrowed from it in return.
And it never would have happened if the rights holders had been able to shut Leblanc and Monkey Punch down.
Cory Doctorow wears the habitual rose-colored glasses of the impassioned activist, so I tend to take what he says with more than a few grains of salt. Nonetheless, it's nice to hear a little optimism even if it may be largely unfounded. We'll just have to wait and see what comes of it.
Lots of people from the original are involved. It's just that they're mostly involved as writers, rather than in-front-of-the-camera personalities (barring a few amusing cameos).
I never was a huge fan of it, myself. When the episodes were good, it was pretty awesome. But most of them just seemed kind of boring.
Nonetheless, a lot of my friends were into it. And in kind of a meta sense, it's a lot more fun to watch this kind of show together with other people.
This is also why you don't tend to see a lot of Baen ebooks being pirated. Creator requests do carry weight with something this much-loved.
I don't get the sense that there's any animosity between them. In fact, Rifftrax has done a lot to help boost the new season of the show, including giving away Rifftrax videos to backers of the Kickstarter, and of course hosting a MST3K reunion show gathering together as many of the alumni who are still interested in doing riffs as they could get their hands on. I imagine that Rifftrax is enough of a full time job that they don't really have time to spare for the other stuff.
I've also noticed that Rifftraxers Bill Corbett and Mary Jo Pehl are both on writing staff for some of the episodes, too.
Actually, you can earn multiples of 10 pokecoins per day. Every 21 hours, you can get 10 coins for every gym you control at the end of the 21-hour countdown timer. I've never managed to have more than 2 or 3 at a time when that happened, but I expect when I get some more powerful critters I'll be able to do better.
The problem as I see it is two-fold: first, the sudden presence of about a zillion just-as-good-as-the-original digital media files up for resale would collapse the market and put publishers out of business.
Second, and more importantly, there's no way to prevent people from cracking the DRM on their e-books and backing them up before selling the DRM-locked original. You can crack the DRM on library books now just as easily as you can the ones you buy from Amazon. I don't see that changing.