I appreciate all that you’re doing, but you really should include a license in your books. Since they’re all public domain, something like the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ would suit. That makes the licensing situation completely clear to anyone who comes across the books.
However, I also noticed a complication. In your FAQ, you state “However, I DO take issue with people just taking all my ebooks, and offering them on their own site, as is, and not taking out my logo and website name first. Please don't do this. If you take out my logo and website name - fair enough - but if you don't, please bear in mind this is then copyright infringement.” That should also be made clear in each book.
Further, I’m not sure if you can really say that your website name is copyrighted. You can trademark a website name, but I’m pretty sure you can’t say it is copyrighted. I could be wrong — IANAL — & will happily stand correction.
In the footer of Standard Ebooks, it says: “Content produced by or for Standard Ebooks L3C is dedicated to the public domain via the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Content not produced by or for Standard Ebooks L3C but displayed on this website may be subject to copyright.” (https://standardebooks.org/) Perhaps that sort of contrast would be a guide (not necessarily about your website’s content, but as a guide to separating things out). While there, you might want to take a look at https://standardebooks.org/about/standard-ebooks-and-the-pub... as well.
Great project! I hope some of these points are helpful to you in your endeavors.
That part in my FAQ came out of frustration - I wrote it after a guy basically copied my entire site, including website name, domain, and logo - he did this three times (the last time he also served the downloads from my server). I honestly don't mind people sharing the books at all, but I'm not going to lie - that was annoying, especially when, at one point, his site was second in the results when you searched for mine.
With the copyright, I was more talking about the logo, but I can see why I didn't make that clear.
But in general, I absolutely do not care when people share the books.
So point taken - I'll rethink it and re-word it in the next couple of days. Thank you :)
granneman|4 years ago
However, I also noticed a complication. In your FAQ, you state “However, I DO take issue with people just taking all my ebooks, and offering them on their own site, as is, and not taking out my logo and website name first. Please don't do this. If you take out my logo and website name - fair enough - but if you don't, please bear in mind this is then copyright infringement.” That should also be made clear in each book.
Further, I’m not sure if you can really say that your website name is copyrighted. You can trademark a website name, but I’m pretty sure you can’t say it is copyrighted. I could be wrong — IANAL — & will happily stand correction.
In the footer of Standard Ebooks, it says: “Content produced by or for Standard Ebooks L3C is dedicated to the public domain via the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Content not produced by or for Standard Ebooks L3C but displayed on this website may be subject to copyright.” (https://standardebooks.org/) Perhaps that sort of contrast would be a guide (not necessarily about your website’s content, but as a guide to separating things out). While there, you might want to take a look at https://standardebooks.org/about/standard-ebooks-and-the-pub... as well.
Great project! I hope some of these points are helpful to you in your endeavors.
notanexpert|4 years ago
With the copyright, I was more talking about the logo, but I can see why I didn't make that clear.
But in general, I absolutely do not care when people share the books.
So point taken - I'll rethink it and re-word it in the next couple of days. Thank you :)