contributory infringement:
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/question.cgi?QuestionID=268
Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
Both the law and the real world situation is unclear.
Clearly, publishers own the intellectual property of a cover graphic.
Could using thumbnail images of lots of covers in aggregate be
considered fair use? Maybe, the law is not clear (there is some case
law to suggest it could be, but it's hardly settled).
Would publishers mind if you are using their intellectual property
like this? It's not clear. On the one hand, these days everyone thinks
they should be getting paid if you are using their IP for anything. On
the other hand, _some_ publishers are giving thumbnails for free to
Internet Archive. Maybe publishers realize giving you this 'property'
to, after all, let you advertise their wares for them, is a good
thing. Of course Bowker/Syndetics (and I think Ingram has a cover
service too?) don't like free covers because they make money from it.
I am very very curious as to what terms Bowker has with the
publishers; does Bowker have an _exclusive_ license with the
publishers to do certain things? How much, if any, do the publishers
get paid for Bowker's use of their cover images? Very curious what the
business situation is, because that helps us guess how various actors
will behave.
If you use Bowker/Syndetics images in a way not covered by the
license, that's a license issue. Amazon licenses from Bowker, and in
turn licenses the end-user, so there are various parties there that
could be violating licenses. Google also licenses either from Bowker
or Ingram or someone else, not sure who, but I'm pretty sure they've
gotten cover images by license.
The LibraryThing archive was not obtained by license. It was obtained
by individual users scanning and uploading. So the only license
involved is one between LibraryThing and the end-users of the images,
there is no license violation with any provider of the image possible.
Just possibly a copyright violation.
Jonathan
Lars Aronsson wrote:
Tim Spalding wrote:
I really hope this—or more probably what comes of this—ends the
selling of covers to libraries.
Probably not, with all the restrictions you attached.
Still, this is a most interesting experiment. Commercial sellers
supposedly have a legal backing from contracts with publishers, which
you don't? How long will that last? If it does last, it is indeed a
big win.
In the blog entry, you wrote: "Publishers and authors want libraries
and bookstores to show their covers." -- I'm not so sure. I think
publishers want copyright to make it hard to use out-of-print books,
so people buy new books instead. Back in 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote:
"We don't want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to
like the new ones."
--
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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