Adventures in Copyfight: Copyright notice on PD works

[elf]

I recently picked up a copy of Captains Courageous, by Kipling, from Fictionwise. (Because joanwilder posted a fic at the snarry_games which quoted heavily from it--Sex, Lies and Audiotape.) Decided I should read the whole book, not just the quoted snippets; knowing it was a public domain book, I checked Fictionwise before the other sites, 'cos FW has books in a bunch of formats. (They have CC for free in multiformat... and in two secure formats for different prices. How weird.)

Got the free version. Decided to look at the copyright info. Hmm. Had some questions about that, and decided to ask FW about them.

Fictionwise works damned hard to keep you from directly speaking to them. I remember emailing them in the past. Now, since the Barnes & Noble buyout, I can't find a contact email anywhere on the site. Wow, that's impressive.

Let's see... start with the Home page, 'cos that's the one I visit first (because I can remember "fictionwise.com.")

I scroll to the bottom, 'cos that's where the tiny "COntact us" link is usually hidden. Except they don't have one. However, they do have About Us, which often leads to a contact page or set of links. But not for FW; About Us is short page saying "WE HAZ EBOOKS; ZEY R KEWL." With quotes from authors and (presumably nifty) websites, saying how kewl they are. Ah! There's a contact address for the creator & former owner of FW, Steve Pendergrast. It says,

Fictionwise is open to potential partnerships and strategic relationships. We believe that the potential for eBooks is enormous and the best way to expand the market is to work together. Contact <mailto:pr@fictionwise.com>Scott Pendergrast with your ideas.

I note that this does not imply, "Contact Steve with your questions about the site or its contents." Especially since the address is "PR," not "SP" or anything that sounds like it's a personal email.

Hm. No contact page. Hey! There's the Help page, which I forget about because I know how to download ebooks, and what filetypes mean. But maybe the contact info is buried in there!

Help is... amazingly unhelpful.
How Fictionwise Works
eBook Basics
eBook Reading Devices & Formats Overview
Fictionwise Money Saving Tips
... and so on.

Oh, wait, buried in the middle of info about PayPal and rebates and secure ebook formats, is a link for Online Database; Contact Customer Support. That's what I want!

Errm. No, it's not. What's there is:
Step 1: Please carefully select a Topic below. Answers will appear further below in red.
Topics in the dropdown menu are:
Microsoft Reader
Adobe Reader
eReader
Mobipocket Reader
Gemstar/Rocket eBook Reader
Suggestions and Feedback

None of those are what I'm looking for: "I have a question about a book I got from you."

Looks like I'll be writing to pr@fictionwise.com because it's the only contact email address on the site.

The 2nd page of the PDF, right after the (FW generic) cover, says:

Copyright ©
NOTICE: This ebook is licensed to the original purchaser
only. Duplication or distribution to any person via email,
floppy disk, network, print out, or any other means is a
violation of International copyright law and subjects the
violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment. This notice
overrides the Adobe Reader permissions which are
erroneous. This book cannot be legally lent or given to
others.

I want to know who owns the copyright, and on what date it was registered. Because all their blather about "illegal to share because of copyright" is pointless (erm, lying) if the content in question is in the public domain.

I sent an email, saying (in part): "Can you tell me to whom it is copyrighted, and in what year, so I can start the process of contacting the person/company for permission to use the work?"

I'll let you know what answer(s) I get.

Comments

[temaris]

Captains Courageous is out of copyright. It is therefore likely that they only have publisher copyright: that is a claim over the format, typography and layout.

If you want a copy to use in your own work, with unambiguous copyright status, go to Project Gutenburg, the book is to be found here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2186 where it says "Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook.".

Gutenburg only converts books out of copyright *somewhere*, and states where. It doesn't make it easier to find out whether it's public domain elsewhere, but it's a start. I'd suggest using the Project Gutenberg copy. It's very likely that Fictionwise did.

ETA: unless you point is their copyright statement and not its actual status: which will be relating to their typographical and formatting copyright, which (in the UK at least, and I think in the US) is the publisher's and has a shorter period. Or contacting then, in which case , good luck.

[elf]

Sorry; didn't make it clear that I knew it was public domain.

I've seen publisher's format copyright claims before (which, umm... I think have some flaws in them; I b'lieve it's fraud to tell customers "no part of this book can be copied" when the law is actually "the formatting/layout of this book cannot be copied, but the text is freely available for use")--this one was new to me in not listing a year or person that owned copyright.

One of their other editions says "Copyright Rudyard Kipling 2006," which I find immensely amusing. (I have my suspicions that Mr. Kipling did not, in fact, register that book in 2006.) But at least there's a person & year.

This one? Just says "Copyright." No year. No person/company.

So I'm pestering them about *who* they are claiming I'd be violating the copyright of, if I sent around copies of the ebook.

[temaris]

Gotya -- same general principle as laughing at the piracy= evol doom-announcements in cinemas or watching dvds ::g::

Default formatting for the lose, Fictionwise ::g::

Technically, I suspect like most non-US authors before about 1970, Mr Kipling never saw a dime in royalties from the US, and his books were published legally there as 'not copyrighted', due to the small problem of it requiring first worldwide publication in the US or it was fair game to whoever wanted it. Tolkein and Heyer got stung on that too.

[darkemeralds]

I'm a fan (and customer) of Fictionwise for all the reasons you are. Thanks for not only taking time to try and find contact information, but to document your efforts. This post is amusing and frustrating, and Netflix is exactly the same way.

I'll be interested in any response you get (though I'm not holding my breath). My guess is that that copyright notice is stuck routinely on the front of all their downloadable ebooks. My guess is that out-of-copyright works are all going to fall into some great Google trap of "ownership" and "monetization" in our lifetimes.

Every single thing I read in this area just makes me that much more enthusiastic about fanworks. At least for everyday reading and entertainment, they're more than satisfactory, and have collectively taken hundreds of my book-buying dollars right out of circulation, because I can't get the "real" books I want in the format I want when I want them, at any price.

[elf]

Three days, no answer... I sent in a message through their convoluted "help" contact form today.