Publisher Warns Fans That Liking A Book Too Much May Be Illegal
from the seriously? dept
When will they learn? Apparently, one of the hot book series out there is the "Millennium Trilogy" by author Stieg Larsson. Apparently, the first couple of books have become incredibly popular in the US, but the third in the series has been released elsewhere, but not in the US yet. So, not surprisingly, many fans are ordering it from abroad. Most of the article is about the fans' excitement for the book, and their demand for it:"Once you know you can have it, once you know it exists in English and you can buy it, it would be crazy not to."But, the US publisher is quoted towards the end threatening those doing so, claiming it's illegal:
"What I would say to readers is, I would encourage them to shop at their local bookseller here in the United States or their online bookseller in the United States, where no laws are being broken and you are supporting the continuing discovery of world literature."As the anonymous reader who submitted this story notes, rather than just reading this statement, you really should hear the audio version of what Paul Bogaards from publisher Knoph says, because it's not fully conveyed in the written article. First, what he says in the audio version:
"Because it's against the law. It's a violation of copyright law."But you have to hear the sheer condescension in the tone. He says it as if he's speaking to pre-schoolers, not huge fans of these books.
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Filed Under: books, copyright, fans, publishers, stieg larsson
Companies: knopf
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Global world?
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Re: Global world?
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Re: Global world?
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Re: Global world?
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Re: Global world?
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WTF?
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Re: WTF?
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Re: Re: WTF?
Brings to mind Dennis Farrina's quote from Snatch:
"Doug, why don't you speak English? I thought you people were the ones that spawned the fucking language, and so far no one seems to speak it!"
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Re: Re: Re: WTF?
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Re: Re: WTF?
I needed that laugh, and liked your humor :)
Also listen to the words this guy chooses, words like "consider".
The problem is they think they still have the control of old, or fool themselves into believing so, they dont realize the world has gotten smaller and if they really piss someone off all that someone has to do is take a little while off to scan the whole book and put it on the p2p networks.
Its pretty simple, either meet the demand or... someone is going to meet it for you, and unlike in old, this time there is no monetary gain thats the main motivation... just our ingrained instinct to 'share'.
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Re: Re: WTF?
I needed that laugh, and liked your humor :)
Also listen to the words this guy chooses, words like "consider".
The problem is they think they still have the control of old, or fool themselves into believing so, they dont realize the world has gotten smaller and if they really piss someone off all that someone has to do is take a little while off to scan the whole book and put it on the p2p networks.
Its pretty simple, either meet the demand or... someone is going to meet it for you, and unlike in old, this time there is no monetary gain thats the main motivation... just our ingrained instinct to 'share'.
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Re: Re: WTF?
I imagine that's why Bloomsbury "translated" the Harry Potter novels into American. It was strangley disconcerting reading one whilst living in Philadelphia, some of the language used was just... wrong. Of course, I only noticed because I am English; the average American wouldn't.
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Re: WTF?
Of course, the answer is the same as for any time this kind of thing happens - give the customers what they want. Forcing people to wait will often just encourage them to get the goods by other means. Anti-consumer rights people can at least take solace in the fact that those people are buying a legal copy in this case so that the estate of the (sadly prematurely deceased) author will benefit.
"These aren't like video games with regional encoding."
Except, it is *exactly* like that. The regional coding is just a way to try and enforce this idiocy on captive markets through technology. Other than the fact that such technology is not possible on paperbacks, it's an identical situation.
Now, at least, Americans are getting a taste of how us Brits feel when we're forced to wait 6 months for a DVD or videogame, only to be told we're "pirates" for hacking our systems to play perfectly legal English language imports.
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Re: Re: WTF?
I believe that is the difference he was pointing out.
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Been there. Done that.
After the first three books had come out, with no eBook release, I noticed the following:
Book 4: on the net one month later.
Book 5: on the net one week later
Book 6: on the net the next day
Book 7: on sale in England, on the net before the stores opened in New York.
The publisher's response to the demand: "I should think they would understand that if we don't provide it, they can't have it."
My response: I'll get 'em from the library, if I ever bother.
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Re: Been there. Done that.
Maybe one day they'll realize that it's not piracy that's killing the industry.
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Seriously?
If what Chronno S. Trigger says is true about the release dates then I have to ask what the hell is taking so long? All they have to do is translate the book from UK to US language and really how long can that take?
Its not a game so its not like they have to account for cultural differences, voice acting, regional coding, and all that other stuff that would cause a big delay in releasing in another country.
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Re: Seriously?
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Re: Seriously?
Since it is already written, published, bound and boxed in a warehouse just waiting for months, if not years to be released, None!!
I used to work in a secure warehouse that the entertainment industry used to keep all of their top secret projects. They had movies on DVD years before the release date in the theater. The filming and post production is sometimes done years ahead of the release.
We also kept books from publishers that wanted to hold off the release for many months or years. The assholes from the companies treated everything like it was life or death that nothing got released. One jackass told us in a briefing that if anything got out, it would be like killing the president of the US. He told us that the FBI and Secret Service would get balls deep in our lives. First thing we did was crack open a box and put that shit on the internet. Glad we were the ones that provided the security tape on the boxes. Nothing ever happened... Next time he came by to brief us, we told him to STFU and stop blowing smoke up our asses before we had him arrested for making terroristic threats.
As for the book releases... Who cares... if you can get it, do it. Nothing is illegal unless someone shows up at your home to enforce some unpopular, useless, and unenforceable law.
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Is that even true?
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Re: Is that even true?
Of course not.
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Importing English Books
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"UK release the 1st of October 2009, US release the 31st of October 2009."
http://www.stieglarsson.com/Millennium-series
seems to meet all the demands made in the NPR rant.
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Re:
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What?
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Re: What?
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Re: What?
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Re: What?
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Huh?
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Re: Huh?
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Re: Huh?
Most likely the book has different publishers for different countries/regions (as is frequently the case). So when Americans buy copies from the UK and have them shipped here, the company who payed dearly for the US rights to print and distribute the book is losing potential sales, even though Mr. Larson is still making money from it. I suspect very strongly that that is the root of the issue.
Of course, if the American publisher/distributor had any sense they would recognize that in a global economy with widespread international trade, the artificial structures of country are extremely permeable.
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Re: Re: Huh?
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Steig Larsson's estate maybe...
http://www.stieglarsson.com/
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Poorly edited story
The publisher was complaining about a bookstore in Houston that was purchasing copies for resale. I don't agree with the law, but he is correct on that point.
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Re: Poorly edited story
All this online book-buying did not escape the attention of book sellers, like David Thompson of Murder By the Book mystery bookstore in Houston. Thompson says the store wanted to honor the U.S. release date, but it kept getting harder and harder.
"We had gotten several very loyal customers who just absolutely needed the third book because the second one ends with such a cliffhanger you really, really want to read that third one right away," Thompson says. "And so we felt that it was really important to serve our customers and import these books that there was a desperate demand for."
Eventually Knopf found out that Thompson's store and others were importing copies of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and selling them to their customers. Knopf asked the booksellers to stop the practice, because says Bogaards, "it's a violation of copyright law."
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Re: Re: Poorly edited story
Except, it isn't.
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Re: Poorly edited story
Neither of one of you is correct.
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Re: Poorly edited story
He's wrong in saying "it's a violation of copyright law." Neither Copyright nor any other law prevents you from reselling a book you purchased.
There may be contractual issues at play, but that's completely unrelated to Copyright.
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wow
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TV shows suffer from the same problem.
There's no way I was going to wait that long to see the shows, so I resorted to downloading the episodes from the net.
Doctor Who is currently playing with a 2 week lag. The first episode of the new season will air on the same night as the third episode will be airing in the UK.
In a world of global communication, even two weeks is quite long. If you wait, you miss out on discussions about your favourite shows, and you have to worry about running into spoilers.
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Re: TV shows suffer from the same problem.
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Re: TV shows suffer from the same problem.
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It's like suicide, only slower and even more pointless.
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How much you wanna bet...
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No wonder the third part has been available via the bittorrent protocol for 6 months...
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Having read all three books...
I recommend getting that anyone interested in a good read (or three) purchase all three of the books by whatever means necessary.
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Anybody familiar with the law care to clarify the meaning of 17 USC 602 (a) in light of the exception above in (b)?
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Re:
Seems to me that anyone importing less than 2,000 copies is in the clear, here. That's just a guess. Some of it is too damned wordy, and makes me think that our lawyers need to take a common English course and abide by much more strict rules.
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How is this a violation of copyright law?
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Re: How is this a violation of copyright law?
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i told you they are getting retarded
i didn't even bother with rest of the article if even 1% hint at what hollywood wants these days comes true were all going to DIE OFF ON THIS PLANET
think of the children , free up knowledge and culture
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it's WHAT law?
That was my reaction too! I know why DVD regions are "the law" (damn CSS and the DMCA), but last I heard the DMCA doesn't apply to bound works (maybe they could consider plastic wrap to be a copy protection technique)?
Anyone want to shed some light on this?
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Re:
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Not an actual problem.. :)
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Paul Bogaards lied to NPR
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In the U.S. is not so bad compared to other places that have "moral rights" that are even more restrictive, like the right the author has to not have his or her work shown in a bad light. Europe and Asia fully embrace moral rights.
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Paul B. is on Twitter
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BTW, @chris, I love your avatar... I'm wearing it in a t-shirt right now!
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In this case the UK publisher is an independant called Quercus.
Any sales into the US by Quercus or any retailer/wholesaler who has purchased from Quercus is a contractual issue with the Author.
However the US publisher has licensed copyright in the US. Therefore importation (selling) of an infringing work into the US is also a copyright issue.
The buyer is fine, I believe, it is the seller that is at fault. Unless of the course the buyer imports for new sales inb which case there is a copyright problem
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Re:
Fine - He died 9 November 2004
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foreign rights
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Re: Publisher Warns Fans That Liking A Book Too Much May Be Illegal
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Importation/Copyright
http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/kirtsaeng-v-john-wiley-sons-inc/
Commentary from scotusblog. Holding: The “first sale” doctrine, which allows the owner of a copyrighted work to sell or otherwise dispose of that copy as he wishes, applies to copies of a copyrighted work lawfully made abroad.
So Boogards is a liar and a fartwit ( the reader may wish to substitute other vowels and consonants).
Bookstores and individuals can import and sell books they buy overseas.
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