Google Book Forum: Is Kessinger Publishing for real?
I had a number of 1800s needlework books in my library. Suddenly some of them are not Full View any more. They are listed as “Legacy Reprint Series” by Kessinger Publishing.
When I search for
“Legacy Reprint Series” inpublisher:Kessinger inpublisher:Publishingit brings up 97,300 results. Is this for real? Are they some kind of Print on Demand house? And can they really take public domain books away like this, as fast as Google can scan them and put them up?
Ninety-seven thousand three hundred books they have in their little publishing house?
And the bottom line of these parasites is this:
So basically, Kessinger is taking books Google has invested the time and money to digitize, filing for an ISBN number, and taking it out of public domain.
Where is the Court to stop this looting of our cultural heritage?
Would there be an uproar if Google claimed Copyright after scanning all of these?
Previously at The iPad Test:
The Looting Of Our Public Domain
Public Domain Parasites: An Ongoing Series
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
Pingback: Moblog
Pingback: Using Google Books To Remove Access To Public Domain Books | PHP Hosts
Pingback: Using Google Books To Remove Access To Public Domain Books | Techdirt
As far as our laws are constucted – and they are often the same globallly, due to the many international convetions, once the copyright has expired, then it’s in the public domain. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell the works after the fact, but on the other hand, it doesn’t mean you can claim that it is your work either.
Droit Moral rights never expire.
Also, if they do some work on the old books, and reprint them, they might get a new copyright for the reprint. This won’t however awaken the expired copyright, which remains expired.
What it can mean though, is that you might not be allowed to copy the reprint.
Arguing this from Denmark will not do. Copyright law here allows this looting of the public domain to take place here in America.
Unless there is a substantial revision of the work no new copyright shoud arise; it must still live/die with the now long dead Author or his/her dead assignee. A copy of a copy is still a copy of the origional.
Google should be checking for scams like this. I also found it happening with Microsoft when it was scanning books.
Has anyone considered the aspect of plagerism??
Pingback: The True eBook Fraud: Self-Interest - The Digital Reader
Pingback: Who’s After the dotBOOK Top Level Domain - The Digital Reader