Legality of home-made ebooks

[KuroNeko]

Are home made ebooks legal? If you own a book and scan it to take with you on holiday on your PPC, is that legal?

Current laws in EU coming into effect forbid making home copies of CDs to play on your car cd player for instance. Police can arrest you if they find such CDs in your car in routine inspections.

So what would happen if you get searched, and they find such an ebook on your PPC, would they automatically assume it's illegal?

Neko

[bjornkeizers]

Well, technically, it's illegal. You're stealing the books, and you're breaking like a hundred or so copyright laws.

I do it, and I don't really think about the copyright issues. I cant buy most of the books I make myself in the bookstore. I'm in Holland, and I only read english books. Sure, you can find an english Harry Potter or LOTR, but if I want say.. Orwell's "1984" I'm out of luck. So, I make my own books.

As long as you don't go around distributing Harry Potters on Pocketgear, you shouldn't worry too much about the legal issues surrounding this. And if you do get stopped, I don't think they have the right to just search your PPC without good reason; especially if you have a password on it [which you should, to protect from snooping people]

[Sven Johannsen]

Well, technically, it's illegal. You're stealing the books, and you're breaking like a hundred or so copyright laws.

How in the world is copying a book that you have legally obtained, for your exclusive use, illegal?

Here is the Fair use section of the US Code that covers this.
TITLE 17 > CHAPTER 1 > Sec. 107. Prev | Next
Sec. 107. - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

I'm no lawyer, but it seems that personal copies, are easily covered between points 1 and 4. That sort of use was covered a hundred years ago when folks were taping their own LPs onto reel-to-reel so they didn't distroy the vinvl. The reality is each instance of such copying must be taken to the courts to determine if that instance is a copyright violation or covered within "fair use".

There are some very good discussions in this area over at PocketPCPassion (and I'm sure Jason won't mind me mentioning that site). Look for posts and threads including Music Attorney (he is).

You can read the other parts of the salient code at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html if you are intersted. Note that this is US Code, so since you are in EU, doesn't apply. That's part of the international problem. There isn't a universal set of rules to follow on what is a global issue. Seems to me that it isn't rocket science to figure out what is right in this case. If you are not distributing the work, denying whoever makes money off of it their legal income, I see no reason for it to be a crime. Rules and Laws are really only there to inform those who can't tell right from wrong, what is.

[dMores]

i just learned a few weeks ago that if you legally own a book, you're allowed to make copies, and even distribute them as a teaching aid.
as long as you don't copy the first and last page (!), you can even copy the whole book.

so i'd say you're pretty safe.

but, doesn't it take like 5 days to manually scan in a book and have it character-recognized? wouldn't it be less of a hassle to just take the book along with you?

[bjornkeizers]

Well, technically, it's illegal. You're stealing the books


I was thinking of myself :D That *should* have said:


Well, technically, it's illegal if you don't own the book.


Of course, if you own the book, it would probably be legal to have electronic copys of it.

[bjornkeizers]

but, doesn't it take like 5 days to manually scan in a book and have it character-recognized? wouldn't it be less of a hassle to just take the book along with you?

Yep, but if you know where to look... you can find most books already scanned, proofread, and waiting for a download.. it's just a matter of knowing where to look and downloading a couple files.

Whenever I want to read a book, I download at least three files. I scan each file for big scanning/character recog errors, I pick the one with the least errors, and fix the rest of the annoying ones. Whole process takes 10 minutes from start to finish.

[dMores]

so how do you get rid of the linebreaks at the end of a "book-line" so it won't look weird on your pda?

[Rudism]

so how do you get rid of the linebreaks at the end of a "book-line" so it won't look weird on your pda?

1. Search/replace all double line breaks with some text that is guaranteed not to show up elsewhere in the book (funky characters, or something like "[[dbl-line-break]]")

2. Search/replace all single line breaks with a space.

3. Search/replace all of the double line breaks you search/replaced earlier and change them back into double line breaks.

If the book uses single line breaks with indent to separate paragraphs instead of double line breaks, search/replace single breaks followed by a tab, or multiple spaces in step 1 instead.

Alternatively, you can replace all double line breaks with "<br><br>", then open the text in a web browser which will remove single line breaks for you when it renders, then copy and paste into a new file from the browser (assuming whichever browser you use doesn't add it's own line breaks to copied text).

If the text does not distinguish between paragraph breaks and end-of-line breaks, there's not much you can do in a timely fashion.

[blusparkles]

How in the world is copying a book that you have legally obtained, for your exclusive use, illegal?

Here is the Fair use section of the US Code that covers this.




Well not everyone in the world is covered by US law :wink:

[upplepop]

Sure, you can find an english Harry Potter or LOTR, but if I want say.. Orwell's "1984" I'm out of luck. So, I make my own books.

Maybe you should look a little harder (http://www.rosettabooks.com/pages/title_129.html) before you start pirating ebooks. So far, I haven't had any trouble finding ebooks. (1984 is available at several (http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/REFID=43617/book.cgi/0795309155)different (http://www.bookbooters.com/b06562.asp)places (http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/68674-ebook.htm)).

[bjornkeizers]

look a little harder before you start pirating ebooks.


Read.. The... POST!


(..) I cant buy most of the books I make myself in the bookstore. I'm in Holland, and I only read english books. Sure, you can find an english Harry Potter or LOTR, but if I want say.. Orwell's "1984" I'm out of luck. So, I make my own books. (..)


See that? It says "in the bookstore" I know it's available online, but I don't want any DRM encrypted stuff, nor do I want to be charged an obscene amount for the books. Besides, considering the number of books I read, buying them all would be a tad costly.

I have the means to do it, so... I do it.

[Steven Cedrone]

See that? It says "in the bookstore" I know it's available online, but I don't want any DRM encrypted stuff, nor do I want to be charged an obscene amount for the books. Besides, considering the number of books I read, buying them all would be a tad costly.

I have the means to do it, so... I do it.

All right, I'm gonna take the bait...

So what you are saying is that you don't feel you should have to pay for books, you just want to read them... :roll:

I guess you can try to justify your actions any way you want, but in my book, you are just a thief...

Steve

[bjornkeizers]

All right, I'm gonna take the bait...


I wouldn't do that if I were you. :D


So what you are saying is that you don't feel you should have to pay for books, you just want to read them... :roll:


I do buy books in a book store. Mostly books I can't get online, or it wouldn't be practical if I could [reference books with lots of images]
Paying for every book I read... well, I just wouldn't be able to afford it. I just bought a new PPC @ 199 euro; a book costs perhaps, on average, 15 euro. So, if I read 16 books, I'll have saved the cost of the PPC. Every letter I read after those initial 16 books is pure profit.

Hey, you asked, so i answered.



I guess you can try to justify your actions any way you want, but in my book, you are just a thief...


I never said I wasn't. In fact...


(..)I've been called a thief [and with good reason mind you!] and much worse.. so I don't really mind. (..)


So there.

[PetiteFlower]

Don't you have public libraries in Holland? You want to read a book you can't afford, just borrow it!

[PetiteFlower]

That might actually be an interesting way to use DRM......a 2 week "license" to read a book for a dollar. If you're not done in 2 weeks, you renew it for another dollar. Couldn't be FREE free like in a library because you wouldn't be in danger of paying late fees, but cheaper then buying, unless you read really slow :) But people who read slow probaby don't have the problem of not being able to afford as many books as they want to read!

[Sven Johannsen]

How in the world is copying a book that you have legally obtained, for your exclusive use, illegal?

Here is the Fair use section of the US Code that covers this.




Well not everyone in the world is covered by US law :wink:

Yea, I covered that farther down in the post. My first statement was more of a generic, how could any legislative body think that was illegal. There are lots of silly rules, and it is worse if they are arbitrary and inconsistant across borders.

[blusparkles]

How in the world is copying a book that you have legally obtained, for your exclusive use, illegal?

Here is the Fair use section of the US Code that covers this.




Well not everyone in the world is covered by US law :wink:

Yea, I covered that farther down in the post. My first statement was more of a generic, how could any legislative body think that was illegal. There are lots of silly rules, and it is worse if they are arbitrary and inconsistant across borders.

The Australian Copyright Act doesn't have the same fair use provisions as the US equivalent. There are limited exceptions for things like educational purposes, but even then you can only copy a certain percentage of the book.

[Jereboam]

That might actually be an interesting way to use DRM......a 2 week "license" to read a book for a dollar. If you're not done in 2 weeks, you renew it for another dollar. Couldn't be FREE free like in a library because you wouldn't be in danger of paying late fees, but cheaper then buying, unless you read really slow :) But people who read slow probaby don't have the problem of not being able to afford as many books as they want to read!

Fictionwise do this for Buywise members, kind of an experiment. The choice is limited, but if I could "borrow" electronically a book that I didn't particularly want for the permanent collection for a week or so at a sensible price, that would work for me.

This could be especially good for students, researchers etc...but again would be something fiercely opposed by print publishers as it affects their bottom line. Imagine confronting them with the fact that no longer are schools and universities going to buy textbooks in their thousands and millions, but just check them out of an elibrary for a time? They'd go bananas. This is the real reason that ebooks are not taking off. Publishing houses DON'T WANT THEM TO.

J'bm

[bjornkeizers]

Don't you have public libraries in Holland? You want to read a book you can't afford, just borrow it!

Of course we do! In fact, in my home town alone, there are like 4 public librarys, a couple school libraries and a book mobile.

There are a few problems though. Because I have a visual handicap, I'm unable to read most small print books [bad contrast] so I need larger print versions. As you can imagine, I can't get a larger print version of every book I want to read. While it would be possible for me to read with a magnifying glass, that still would not solve the problem of my library simply not having the desired book.

Take, for example, George Orwell's "1984" which I'm reading right now [hardly a surprise for those who know me! :mrgreen: ]

I've just done a search through the Enschede Library online catalog system. My local librarys have a total of 10 copys of 1984 between them. 8 of which are in Dutch. I only read books in English, as the author intended, so I want an english version. There are 2. Both of which are in a school library, and therefore not open to the public.

Beginning to see my point?