Using Google Books To Remove Access To Public Domain Books
from the that's-evil dept
Michael Scott points us to a blog post at Mike Cane's blog discussing a question asked in the Google Books help forum asking whether or not a publisher named Kessinger Publishing is taking public domain books scanned by Google, printing them, and then trying to block Google Books from offering the whole thing.The details are a bit sketchy at this point, but it does seem like Kessinger is taking the public domain books scanned by Google and then offering them for sale. The guy investigating it notes that some of the covers on Kessinger's books clearly show the Google Books-generated cover. Now, it's important to note that Kessinger reprinting public domain books scanned by Google is perfectly legal (perhaps an argument could be made that Google could claim copyright over some aspect of that cover page it generates, but even that seems like a stretch). There's nothing infringing (at least in the US -- elsewhere, it's a bit unsettled) about taking someone else's scan of public domain works and then publishing it yourself.
What's worrying here is the claim that once Kessinger "republishes" these works, that it's somehow getting Google Books to no longer show the full editions of the books. It's not quite as bad as the initial person claims -- that Kessinger is "taking books out of the public domain," as the books do, in fact, remain in the public domain. The real question is why Google is restricting access to these works. If I had to guess, it's probably due to the fact that Google keeps getting hit with (questionable) copyright lawsuits, so they have a "lock-up first, ask questions later" sort of approach to these things. Unfortunately, if that's the case, it lets publishers effectively hide books that should be freely available, at least for the time being.
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Filed Under: copyright, google books, public domain
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Typo alert
Should be effectively?
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There is nobody who hates our culture more...
And yet, we still pay them to do so...
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Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
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Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
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Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
Also, Google perpetrated 9/11 simply to up their YouTube business with videos of the attacks.
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Re: Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
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Re: Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
Coincidence? I think not!
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Re: Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
Coincidence? I think not!
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Re: Re: Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
That's really stupid to troll people who are only asking questions or expressing themselves. It's a form of censorship using derision. If you think the person is wrong, show your maturity, have a debate and arguments with him.
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Re: Who is behind Kessinger Publishing?
Just go here: http://oll.libertyfund.org/
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copyfraud
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Re: copyfraud
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Google is not careful enough
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Re: Google is not careful enough
How can a publisher claim copyright on the formatting of a public domain book and then have some way to prevent it from being scanned into another (digital) format?
Copyright has gotten so twisted up by the middlemen that it no longer helps anyone that it is supposed to.
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Kessinger and its suspect business
to create a new copyright, changes must be relevant
adding a cover, modify only printed size, is not enough
this is the first malicious act from Kessinger
Kessinger and other BAD companies like Kessinger, try, I think, to OBFUSCATE and MAKING HARD to find, original public domain, scanned by google, that are sources of their reprints
in fact, many times, when Kessinger downloads a new book from googlebooks and then load its REPRINT, with a more recent date, this is done in order to confuse reader and googlebooks
confusing the reader, so he/she, believes does not exist a free browsable copy of book and buy their very poor reprints (very poor why several people are reporting cases of books ordered from kessinger and only partially printed - see here:
http://www.jpwalter.com/machina/?p=199
that is already a behavior at edges of law (buying for whole book and receiving a book incomplete)
CONFUSING googlebooks, why, with loading a downloadedfromgooglecopy of the book, with a more recent date, can produce the false impression of a book that must be not in full view, and, since this reprinted book has the same title of original public domain book, if googlebooks does not care about these attempts of COPYFRAUD, their system can inhibit access also to public domain copy of the same book, that is , I presume, the think that Kessinger try to obtain
in addition to this, its WHOIS records are obscured (via ID SHIELD I Presume)
see:
http://www.ip-adress.com/whois/www.kessinger.net
a curious thing, legally, but curious for a GREAT PUBLISHING COMPANY
no contact seems available, except for this e-mail address ( I have not tried)
books@kessingerpub.com
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terms of use violated
Kessinger (and others) CAN REPRINT but NOT REPUBLISH
In fact, terms of use of googlebooks books, prohibit the COMMERCIAL USE
now, if a company want offer a REPRINTING service (as public domain reprinting.org has done in past), this must be done WITHOUT to be ludicrous, in other words, price must be low enough to pay ink, paper, shipment and so on...
BUT have you seen KESSINGER prices? their bookstakenfromgooglebooks are
- ever in HARDCOVER (hardcover costs more)
- ever at very high (and so ludicrous) price
I think googlebooks must alert its legal staff against Kessinger
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copyfraud
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great resource for public domain books
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Public Domain reprints
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Re: Public Domain reprints
If we continue to buy from Kessinger, kessinger never will be out of business
Learn, that if Kessinger can REPRINT/REPUBLISH AND RECOPYFRAUD, then, must exist the PUBLIC DOMAIN BOOK source of this reprint (scanned by goole, since Kessinger scans nothing itself)
So, if you don't find the book you search, in full view, you must write to googlebooks forum
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/books/browse?hl=en
in order to request that this book must be in FULL VIEW
Buying from Kessinger is not a solution, only increases the Kessinger revenues
I remember also that is strictly prohibited making commercial use of googlebooks scans, and Kessinger is making an hard commercial use, so, it must expect a serious lawsuit from google lawyers
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reprints
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kessinger
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