B&N Claims It Must DRM Public Domain Books To Protect The Copyright On Them
from the say-what-now? dept
Now, it's no surprise that plenty of people don't quite "get" the public domain or why it's important (though, if you are interested, you should read James Boyle's excellent book on the subject, which you can also order -- signed -- as a part of the Techdirt Book Club). And we've seen more than a few instances where people falsely claim copyright on public domain material. However, none of that really explains Barnes & Noble's bizarre and contradictory response to someone's question about why public domain ebooks were locked up with DRM (thanks Mark for sending this in). B&N is apparently offering a promotion for "free" ebooks, but it turns out that all of them are in the public domain (meaning most are already available for free online). But, oddly, these books were locked up by DRM, and someone decided to ask why. The original question goes a bit too far in claiming that the DRM "infringes" on the "right to print the works" (there's no such right, and B&N has no requirement to allow you to print), but that's no excuse for the way B&N "explains" why the public domain books its giving away "free" are protected by DRM:We selected public domain titles as our free eBooks because these books are traditionally among our customers' favorite works of literature.... Also, for copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be converted or printed.So, they recognize that the works are in the public domain... but they encrypt them with DRM to protect the copyright that doesn't exist on those works. That's convincing.
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Filed Under: books, copyfraud, copyright, drm, ebooks, public domain
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Self Interest
But they can't say that ... it'll make them look evil
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Makes sense, from their POV
I've long said that falsely claiming copyright (and DRMing a PD work would qualify, in my estimation) should be at least as criminal as infringing on an actual copyright holder. But that wouldn't benefit the companies that write the laws, so fat chance for that.
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Re: Makes sense, from their POV
Best I remember from reading through the copyright laws, it is indeed a crime to falsely claim copyright over a work. Don't expect to see a corporatist gov't enforcing it against a corporation like B&N though, that would be like a cop giving himself a ticket, i.e. not likely to happen.
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Re: Makes sense, from their POV
There's nothing wrong with that though. If I stand on the sidewalk and say "pay me $5 and you can breath air", it doesn't prevent you from breathing air for free. hould you decide to buy my air, so be it, but it doesn't impinge free breathing.
I agree that DRM an ebook is questionable at best, and their explanation is non-sensical. However, it's hard to see this as especially evil, since you can just go and get non-drm'ed copy for free.
I suspect this is promoting their ebooks that they sell. The problem with promoting non PD, DRM'ed ebooks with DMR-less ebooks is that it creates a false expectation, that the user will be able to do such and such with ebooks. Then the customers buys one, and lo and behold, all that shit you could do with the free one? blocked on the one you bought.
So, DRM'ing this is something of a smart UE move in that giving away drm-less ebooks sets up B&N for a negative user experience when they try to buy.
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Re: Re: Makes sense, from their POV
Ah, but if you stand there and tell people that the gov't has granted you an exclusive monopoly on air that they must pay you in order to breathe under penalty of law, then that's fraud.
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Re: Makes sense, from their POV
Companies can't write laws. Ha ha ha h aha ha aha hahahah...
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Re: Re: Makes sense, from their POV
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Re: Re: Re: Makes sense, from their POV
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Re: Re: Makes sense, from their POV
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Re: Re: Makes sense, from their POV
Is this sarcasm or naivety? I can't quite tell.
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Re:
I can sip some coffee while reading (coffee is usually a no-no in libraries). Also, I'm able to read a BRAND NEW copy each time!
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transformative use?
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Re: transformative use?
That's like saying you get copyright over a PD work be virtue of reprinting it, which is not the case. You can sell what you print, but you don't reclaim copyright on it.
In truth, it's probably part ploy to get people to use their reader and part looking forward and wanting to sell these very same ebooks at some time -- which is a bit nearsighted since, as mentioned, many are already available for free elsewhere.
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Re:
m going to have to charge you a copyright & usage fee.
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Re:
Given that lovely Beatles article a little while back all you have to do to own something is to pretend to own it for a while then all the sudden you own all the rights to it cause no one told you otherwise.
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re: transformative use?
B&N are most likely claiming copyright over the typography and any other formatting to use the Public Domain works with their eReader software!
It's no different than a publisher claiming copyright on the arrangement of a Mozart concerto.
It's mean spirited, counterproductive but most likely legal.
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Re: re: transformative use?
Apples and Oranges
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Re:
Yep, that'd be the battle for Hue, and yes indeed, we had to copyright these woks to save them.
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They're DRMing them to trap the stupid.
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You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
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I'd assume something similar here. They aren't DRM'n for the public domain work, they are DRM'n all the rest they package with it. Kinda nifty that it sidesteps isn't it?
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Copyrighting the PUBLIC Domain
B - Stupid is as Stupid does!
C - Disney has made millions from the 'PUBLIC' Domain, so it must be okay.
D - We don't even have to add any value, we will just claim, "We touched it. therfore we own it!"
E - Proof positive that Greed is Stupid.
Since 'DRM' is Sony's favorite of breaking things, I hope this was spill over of their stupidity. If not, I will stop shopping there. (Every Saturday for years on end, and nearly every Saturday was $25+)
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Right to print
It is the 'right to print copies' that was derogated in the 18th century from the individual's natural 'right to print', in order to create the mercantile privilege of copyright, a reproduction monopoly for the benefit of printers.
So, yes Mike, there is such a thing as the right to print. It is the restoration of this right that is pursued by copyright abolitionists.
Individuals are of course printing what the heck they like anyway (via their inkjet printers), but the abolitionists would see them exempt from prosecution (for ignoring a printer's monopoly).
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DMCA violation?
And yes, I am an IP lawyer.
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My head just exploded
"If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."
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Circumvention?
Could someone legally research and publish circumvention techniques for these titles and be immune from the DMCA due to the fact that the underlaying works are in the Public Domain?
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Re: Circumvention?
http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20090730/0257115712#c312
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It's worse than that...
Amazon's Kindle store has all the public domain stuff too, and some you pay for (usually the paid ones have better formatting, chapter tags, etc), but all can be had for $0 or $0.01.
Also, B&N are artificially inflating the number of titles they have... 700,000? 500,000 are public domain, available through Google and Gutenberg.
The Kindle store has far and away the greater number of "modern" books you might actually be looking for (and aren't free somewhere else).
Just say "NO" to B&N's ebook store.
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Re: It's worse than that...
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What?
Motto: Limited copyrights & patents make for a truly free society
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Re: What?
Isn't that true everywhere?
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Re:
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BTW, as noted above, virtually all of the old "Masters" can be had on the web via sites like Project Guttenberg (sp?).
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Re:
Yes, it's quite likely in fact. But then they shouldn't tell people that the reason they DRM PD works is to protect copyright.
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Thanks
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Re:
There is no such law, nor did anyone imply otherwise. In fact, we stated quite clearly in the post that the initial questioner was wrong in assuming that it had to be copyable.
But what this post is about is the response from BN falsely claiming that public domain works need to be DRM'd for copyright reasons.
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Re: Re:
"We selected public domain titles as our free eBooks because these books are traditionally among our customers' favorite works of literature.... Also, for copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be converted or printed. " what is in the "...." section?
I don't see them claiming false copyright, rather that all files on their system are encrypted.
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Re: Re:
"Unfortunately, eBooks purchased directly from Fictionwise or eReader cannot be merged into your Barnes & Noble eBooks Library.
Also, for copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be converted or printed."
The encryption references to anything purchased from Fictionwise or eReader.
Sometimes reading the whole quote makes all the difference.
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Re: Re: Re:
But this isn't one of them. They're saying that the files are encrypted for copyright purposes which is claiming copyright on them.
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It's also possible that whoever wrote the response just made a mistake, or doesn't fully understand copyrights and the public domain.
I appreciate that it is much more fun to just berate people and companies without giving them the benefit of the doubt, though. I mean, how would you write a compelling story with a headline like "low-level B&N customer service employee writes unclear email; possibly misunderstands copyright law?"
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Re:
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Uh, yes it clearly is because it was made in response to a question about public domain works. Trying to claim that it was answering a different, unasked question doesn't cut it. If you do that under oath it's called perjury, outside of that it's just plain lying.
It's also possible that whoever wrote the response just made a mistake...
Hey, anything's possible I guess, but in the absence of any evidence to that I'd say you're just making stuff up now.
...or doesn't fully understand copyrights and the public domain.
If they don't know then they shouldn't be making stuff up, now should they? And if that *is* the case, then B&N should issue a public statement that the original statement came from a rogue employee acting against company policy who has now been fired for gross misconduct. That's hasn't happened, has it?
I appreciate that it is much more fun to just berate people and companies without giving them the benefit of the doubt, though. I mean, how would you write a compelling story with a headline like "low-level B&N customer service employee writes unclear email; possibly misunderstands copyright law?"
Because that headline would have been speculative and making stuff up (something you seem to like doing) without any evidence to support it. If TD had also wanted to make stuff up or "just berate people and companies" as you put it, they could written something like "Liars at B&N hire other liars to spread untruths to customers whom they believe are too stupid to know any better." But that would have been speculative also. No, I believe their fact based headline was more appropriate.
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Look At the Master Catalog.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
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Re: Look At the Master Catalog.
When I read that I wondered how in the world they managed to do that, so I went to their site to find out. Yeah, you suckered me. It turns out they don't. They don't even claim to. They do have a list books that are available online, but they don't claim that it is a "master catalog" of what's available on the Internet, books or otherwise. So did somebody else tell you that or did you make it up on your own?
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fuck them
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Bully Shitzu (a tough little doggy)
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Bully Shitzu (a tough little doggy)
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