Unfortunate: Novelist Joins Lawsuit Against Libraries; Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity
from the short-sighted dept
After the Authors Guild decided to prove that it's really against education by suing University Libraries, it also began a disappointing game of "gotcha". Specifically, the Guild found J.R. Salamanca, an author who the HathiTrust had been unable to find. The HathiTrust had listed a novel by Salamanca in its list of potential orphan works. The list actually worked as intended -- providing time for any such authors to identify themselves and to stop the orphaned work from becoming available as a scanned work.Still, this made HathiTrust look bad, and it put the project on hold. The best response, though, was from Duke University's Scholarly Communications Officer, Kevin Smith, who wrote an open letter to Salamanca urging him not to join the lawsuit:
It is not a comfortable position to be a pawn in a game of “gotcha,” especially when it involves litigation. What I want to say to you is the same thing I say to faculty authors at the institution where I work: “Consider carefully where your own best interests lie, and manage your copyright to serve those interests.”It appears that the rhetoric from the Authors Guild won out, and J.R. Salamanca has gone in the other direction, joining the lawsuit against the universities and the HathiTrust. What a sad legacy Salamanca is adding to his career. Rather than embracing greater access to his obscure and out of print works, he's chosen to attack learning institutions who sought to make his works more accessible. As a professor himself, he ought to be ashamed.
[....]
I am sure I do not have to tell you that libraries, including those that intend to participate in the Hathi Orphan Works project, are not your enemies. We are in the business of helping authors find readers, which hardly seems like it should be an objectionable activity. So let’s think for a minute about The Lost Country and what might be best for it and for you.
The sad fact is that The Lost Country has become a pretty obscure work. Amazon.com shows only two used copies available for sale. In the Duke Libraries, the last transaction record we have for your novel is in 2004, when our copy was sent to high-density storage. It has not left the facility once since then, and our system shows no circulations in the prior decade, either. One of the famous “laws” of librarianship is that every book should have its readers, and the current system, I am afraid, is failing to connect your book to new readers.
It has to be said that the Authors Guild is not going to help you in this regard. They are not going to publish a new edition of The Lost Country for you, nor will they pay you any royalties on the out-of-print edition. The Authors Guild simply does not have the ability to create a new market for your book. Even if they were to succeed in a grand strategy to impose a licensing scheme for orphan works in general, there is no reason to believe that you would profit from it. With such an obscure work, potential users who had to pay a fee would probably just skip the planned use.
Where you can find help for this problem is with the HathiTrust. Their goal, and the goal of the libraries that plan to participate in the orphan works project, is to make it easier for readers to find works like your novel, which might otherwise languish on shelves or in large warehouses of books. Digital access to low-use titles through our catalogs will encourage users to discover resources, for study and for entertainment, that they might not have bothered with before.
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Filed Under: copyright, j.r. salamanca, libraries, orphan works
Companies: authors guild, hathitrust
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Got it
Google, do your magic.
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Re: Got it
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J.R. Salamanca (if that really is his name) is a turd. His book is a turd and whoever has the two used copies of his book for sale on Amazon should immediately pull them and throw them in the trash for this douche move by Ms Salamanca.
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And yes the term of copyright is idiotically too long, potentially well over 100 years (life of the author plus 70 years), and gets extended another 20 years every time the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire. A return to the original 14 year term with an optional 14 year extension would seem about right to me. I suspect the useful life of all but the greatest of works is around 10 years, and after that most are probably forgotten. For companies like Disney that have something special they want copyright forever, perhaps a law granting them extensions on just their special copyright with an ever increasing fee for each successive extension ($10, $1000, $100,000...) would be more appropriate than extending the term on all copyrights just for the benefit of that one particular party.
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Oh, I like this one! basic Copyright of 15 years with a logarithmic price increase for each 15 year extension based on the number of previous extensions.
1st 15 years = $(10^0)x(10^0) = $1 (or Free if you prefer)
2nd 15 years = $(10^1)x(10^1) = $100
3rd 15 years = $(10^2)x(10^2) = $10,000
4th 15 years = $(10^3)x(10^3) = $1,000,000
5th 15 years = $(10^4)x(10^4) = $100,000,000
6th 15 years = $(10^5)x(10^5) = $10,000,000,000
Somehow I don't think many would make it to the $10 billion mark...
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Total for 100 years of copyright protection is $1,111,111,111.00
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Re: hating games and players
You don't get a pass for being a bad actor because the system is bad. J.R. Salamander be a mensch! Engage the university, not the lawyers
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The fact that it was his decision (and no one has claimed it was not) does not render him immune from criticism and/or shame.
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this is the first and probably the last time i will ever hear of this author. and ill never read his book.
not because of his short sighted decision that would make me not want to read it in the first place... but because he is removing any possibility for me to read it. its out of print, not likely to see a re-issue and he has just insured that i will never be able to read it anyway.
so to that i say way to go jughead!
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Because as a professor he should see the educational benefit of having his book available to many, and the disservice he does to education by ensuring it stays hidden away being read by nobody.
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but that still does not meant that it was a smart move.
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I guess he knows it was shit, and doesn't want it as his legacy
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If someone reads a book and enjoys it, then they are much more likely to look for more books by that author. Even if the first book is a 'loaner' from a library or a friend, there is a significant likelihood that they will look to buy more of the author's books.
In this way, even an 'orphaned' book can spur sales of newer books, ones that are still in print/circulation.
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if no one is able to FIND your book in the first place, no one will be able to read it... and by direct result, none of those benifits you mention could take place either.
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Traditional Publishers model
The truth is:- if Salamanca got 100,000 e-book sales and made 25 cents on each one he would do a great deal better than $10 per book on zero sales.
If he wants obscurity, he is making a down payment on it.
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Re: Traditional Publishers model
The problem is the current law encourages suit and does not make the /chance/ of future sales look rosy. It's twisting the "furtherance of the arts" goal of copyright on its head.
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Re: Re: Traditional Publishers model
Since the trust didn't actually do any infringement - but simply announced their intention - that point is somewhat moot.
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Re: Traditional Publishers model
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I do not understand the issues beyond that.
The Authors Guild is making a huge show about this to "prove" the orphaned works list is faulty, when in truth it did what it was supposed to do.
The author has every right to let the book become obscure. The author has the right to do things how he wants even if they are insane on the face of it.
If the book was any good it would not have languished on a shelf for over a decade with no one even looking.
While matching readers to books is important, matching readers to authors connected to reality seems to be a bit more important.
I say start the project back up and let the Authors Guild do the work of finding all of the others on the list who might still be around.
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That adds an interesting twist... could be be concerned about it affecting other royalties.
Not to mention a 2000 re-release of another one of his novels from 1961.
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RE: "As a professor himself, he ought to be ashamed."
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LOL! Not really, Mike. God, you're an apologist to the core.
The idea of the screening was to identify the truly orphaned works. The fact is that HathiTrust put their best candidates on this list as representative of how great their screening process was. With a little due diligence, several of these orphaned works were shown not to be orphaned after all.
HathiTrust fucked up big time, and it's a huge embarrassment for them. Only a compulsive apologist who was incapable of being intellectually honest (like yourself) could say this turn of events shows their system was working as planned.
God, you're such a fucking liar. You really are on a roll with bullshit after bullshit anti-ip, pro-pirate FUD today. Good on ya, Mike! Job well done today shoveling out piles of bullshit.
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So HathiTrust has some holes in their process. Please name one thing in the entire history of the planet that worked perfectly the very first time?
I have an idea. Why doesn't the Author's Guild and the rest of the publishing industry do something useful and help them make it better?
That was the only useful part of your post. As to the rest, I'll respond in kind:
Hey asshole, go die in a fire.
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I don't have a problem with the system not being perfect. But the fact remains that their system was a failure and it didn't "actually work[] as intended" as Pirate Mike claims it did. Why don't you ask Mike he's desperately trying to spin this as a job well done?
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I'm cool with that. Surprised you are.
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Actually it did. The point of the public list was to deal with situations exactly like this, where their initial review missed someone. Exactly as intended.
And as others noted, if a false positive means the whole system is a failure, then, well, the entire copyright system you love should be scrapped.
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And as others noted, if a false positive means the whole system is a failure, then, well, the entire copyright system you love should be scrapped.
There's not an honest bone in your body, is there?
The fact that several books on the list were easily shown with a bit of due diligence to not be orphan works shows that the vetting process they're using doesn't work as it should. Of course, Pirate Mike can't admit that maybe they're process isn't working perfectly.
Don't believe me? Let's see what an expert who knows far more about this stuff than you or I thinks. According to Prof. Grimmelmann: "Once is a mistake, twice bad luck, and three times is a sign of a broken process. The Authors Guild’s experiment demonstrates that HathiTrust’s orphan-tagging workflow cannot be relied on to identify genuinely orphan works with sufficient confidence to be usable."
Read it for yourself: http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/09/15/hathitrust_single-handedly_sinks_orphan_works_refo
Hon estly, Mike. I'm not saying the "whole system is a failure." You love to think in ridiculous extremes like a child does. But fuck you for being so dishonest and slimy that you can't admit that they're system isn't working perfectly.
You really are a fucking joke, Mike. It's a shame. No wonder you're on the fringe. You honestly disgust me.
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dunno if is you or not, but sems like the same person so yes you said it fial :)
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"Due diligence does not equal infallibility. Insofar as the stated purpose of the Orphan Candidate List is “to help and encourage possible copyright holders to identify themselves so that we can identify them in record,” then the system already appears to be working. Far from demonstration of the HathiTrust’s ineptitude or bad faith, this is only further demonstration of the HathiTrust and its partners’ willingness to respect the intellectual property rights of authors and legitimate copyright holders."
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"Due diligence does not equal infallibility. Insofar as the stated purpose of the Orphan Candidate List is “to help and encourage possible copyright holders to identify themselves so that we can identify them in record,” then the system already appears to be working. Far from demonstration of the HathiTrust’s ineptitude or bad faith, this is only further demonstration of the HathiTrust and its partners’ willingness to respect the intellectual property rights of authors and legitimate copyright holders."
Yes, due diligence doesn't equal infallibility. That doesn't mean that the system in place is adequate. It's not. HathiTrust got to put their best examples forward. With little effort, several were shown to not be truly orphaned. It's clear their system of vetting these works needs some work. If a work can be shown to not be orphaned after a couple minutes on Google, then the process is insufficient. Look, I don't have a problem with the HathiTrust. I'm just being realistic. I'm not trying to make a bunch of excuses and working backwards like Pirate Mike.
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Ad hom.
The fact that several books on the list were easily shown with a bit of due diligence to not be orphan works shows that the vetting process they're using doesn't work as it should.
"As it should?" Last I checked, the process including announcing a list of books where they could not find the author to see if any came forward. That seems to be exactly what happened. I stand by my statement: it appears to have worked exactly as stated.
Of course, Pirate Mike can't admit that maybe they're process isn't working perfectly
Ad hom.
Don't believe me? Let's see what an expert who knows far more about this stuff than you or I thinks.
Ad hom.
According to Prof. Grimmelmann: "Once is a mistake, twice bad luck, and three times is a sign of a broken process. The Authors Guild’s experiment demonstrates that HathiTrust’s orphan-tagging workflow cannot be relied on to identify genuinely orphan works with sufficient confidence to be usable.",
I respect James a ton, but he's talking about something different. The question is whether or not the overall system worked as intended, and it did. If it didn't non-orphaned works would have been released as orphan. But you ignore the fact that part of the system clearly was designed to work in this manner... and did work exactly as planned.
Hon estly, Mike. I'm not saying the "whole system is a failure." You love to think in ridiculous extremes like a child does.
No. You are the one making extreme statements and carrying on.
But fuck you for being so dishonest and slimy that you can't admit that they're system isn't working perfectly.
Ad hom.
You really are a fucking joke, Mike. It's a shame. No wonder you're on the fringe. You honestly disgust me.
Ad hom.
Generally speaking, when you have nothing credible to say you go for the ad homs. This entire comment shows pretty clearly the quality of your argument.
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No - you are wromg - it worked exactly as inteneded - apart from the fact that it provoked misleading publicity from the authors' guild and people like you.
It was a multi stage process - the final stage will always catch something in such a process. If they had thought the earlier screening stages were going to work perfectly they wouldn't have bothered with that final stage.
Why do you hate freedom so much?
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You may not live in New York, but if you ever visit...
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"Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
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Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
So no one else, including Mike, is entitled to an opinion?
In that case, neither do you. YOU have no say in this matter, but you're so full of ignorance that you constantly deride people -- and why should it matter how much money anyone makes? Look out for your own best interests and think before you post.
Or better yet, keep doing what you're doing. We all love a good laugh.
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Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
2. If he was outraged he could simply have followed the procedure to have it removed, the link to contact them is at the top of every page.
3. Rupert Murdoch and his family are being investigated for hacking a cell phone. If they were treated the same as anyone without money they'd be in prison. Maybe someone should have advised him that having money does not mean you're entirely above the law.
4. I live in America, I have every right to rag "on" him. You do not have a right to not be offended and your salty tears sustain me.
5. A book published in the 1950s could easily be within the public domain if the copyright was not renewed. This book was renewed so is under copyright until the 1940s but they are still a library an libraries are able to lend books, even copyrighted ones. Especially since the people who wrote the original laws were the ones to create the library system. I guess those pesky founding fathers couldn't see the benefit of closing off information since an informed public is key to a healthy republic. Are you full of so much chutzpah as to tell Ben Franklin how to run a country?
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Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
"Waah, Waah! I can't control who gets to read my books! I'm not the overlord of my books!"
Don't you get it? We're sick and tired of hearing about how an author has to control and police his work extensively.
And your last sentence: THAT'S WHAT AN ORPHAN WORK IS! The author cannot be found. Alright, in this case, he was found, yes, that was a mistake on their part. But, if a copyright holder cannot be found, then they do have the right to take the books and allow others to read them for free.
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Re: Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
Not a mistake, the system worked exactly as intended. If they couldn't find the author, they setup a system where the author could find them. They put every reasonable effort into associating a person with a work before it was put out for free, and in this case it worked.
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Re: Re: Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
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Re: "Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity"
I'm always amazed by the people insisting on their right to make decisions for someone else.
This is not whose model is better. This is about whether authors have a right to make decisions for themselves.
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http://www.backinprint.com/
They have their own service where they print new copies on demand, and only take 20% oh and in "most" cases this service is free to the authors.
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Found!
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Orphan works
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Axe to Grind
It resembles the little boy with a lemonade stand and a sign
LEMONADe $1,000,000, face full of grins - all I have to do is sell one....
This so called authors guild deserves nothing but ashes and dust.
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