Greetings!
>There are dozens of CDs that do this & its seems impossible to do
>anything about it. Approaches to the sellers are generally met with
>abuse and eBay is not interested.
I did approach Ebay and Amazon here in the UK about a breach of my
copyrights and both removed the item concerned. It was backed by a
solicitor's letter, but the letter was not specifically addressed to
them, but to the person publishing, I sent them copies. They acted very
promptly, but you need to get it to their legal departments. If an item
is advertised on a website and the publisher is unresponsive, you need
to contact the webserver that hosts the site. In my experience they
removed the page concerned.
Moreover, I was not the author of the item concerned. The person had
made copies of a manuscript that I owned for the purposes that he was
going to bind for me to publish, he then went and tried to do his own
pirate version. The letter explained that, under British law, he was
acting as my agent when the copies were made, and I owned the copyright
of those images. I gather this is not the case in the USA, where the
copyright of photographic images requires some artistic input for an
image to acquire copyright.
Texts can be out of copyright, but the publisher will have the copyright
of any typesetting involved in its publication, whether in print or as a
website. Off the top of my head, and without checking, I believe this
lasts for 25 years after publication.
Under British law, copyrights do not need to be registered in any way.
They are established as soon as the text or image is recorded. This is
true not only for published items, but also privately circulated and
unique items that have never been reproduced or issued.
Morally, I think intellectual property goes beyond copyright. I respect
prior discovery. If a publisher, through research, discovers something
out of copyright worth republishing I think he or she should have first
shout on publishing it. Sometimes two publishers may independently
discover the same text, and that is unfortunate and regrettable (I have
been in that situation). Co-ordination between publishers is a good
idea.
With my best wishes
Ben
--
Ben Fernee
Caduceus Books
28 Darley Road
Burbage
Hinckley
Leicestershire
LE10 2RL
U.K.
Private premises, visitors welcome by appointment
Telephone 01455 250542 (+44 1455 250542 from abroad)
Fax 0870 0552982 (+44 870 0552982 from abroad)
Skype ben.fernee.caduceus
Web page:- http://www.caduceusbooks.com
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