Comments for Free the Books http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks conjugating international copyright laws Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:24:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 Comment on GBS is a worrisome development… by thorn http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2009/01/08/gbs-is-a-worrisome-development/comment-page-1/#comment-92 thorn Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:24:47 +0000 http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/?p=53#comment-92 alice is just concerned *now* about people sampling only a few pages of a text? that's been a problem in print, too, since *forever*. just because the student has the print book in hand doesn't mean his or her paper's not due at 8 tomorrow morning. if that's the case, they'll scan the toc & the index, photocopy the imprint & needed couple of pages, and off they'll go. alice is just concerned *now* about people sampling only a few pages of a text? that’s been a problem in print, too, since *forever*.

just because the student has the print book in hand doesn’t mean his or her paper’s not due at 8 tomorrow morning. if that’s the case, they’ll scan the toc & the index, photocopy the imprint & needed couple of pages, and off they’ll go.

]]> Comment on More about the Simon Lucuix Library by David Block http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2008/01/07/more-about-the-simon-lucuix-library/comment-page-1/#comment-77 David Block Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:23:31 +0000 http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/?p=15#comment-77 a very interesting account, and an even more interesting discovery a very interesting account, and an even more interesting discovery

]]> Comment on Reading great books online highlights policy debate by Samsul http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2008/02/25/reading-great-books-online-highlights-policy-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-14 Samsul Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:05:11 +0000 http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/?p=31#comment-14 I think you can mention Project Gutenberg too, it's a public domain of free ebooks. I think you can mention Project Gutenberg too, it’s a public domain of free ebooks.

]]> Comment on Our Google Book Searches… by georgiak http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2008/03/07/our-google-book-searches/comment-page-1/#comment-15 georgiak Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:09:17 +0000 http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/?p=33#comment-15 Great story, Maria, tho fairly depressing. At some point perhaps we'll assess the risk of harm to a copyright owner that we can neither locate nor contact, regarding text that, though reprinted in 1946 in Brazil, and protected in the US until ??, went into the public domain in Brazil in 2008. These are the hard calls we'll be in a position to make some day when we have enough cases to begin to see the trends, the needs, etc. Good work. Great story, Maria, tho fairly depressing. At some point perhaps we’ll assess the risk of harm to a copyright owner that we can neither locate nor contact, regarding text that, though reprinted in 1946 in Brazil, and protected in the US until ??, went into the public domain in Brazil in 2008. These are the hard calls we’ll be in a position to make some day when we have enough cases to begin to see the trends, the needs, etc. Good work.

]]> Comment on Benson Snippets by Dr Graf http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2007/12/19/benson-snippets/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Dr Graf Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:49:36 +0000 http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/?p=7#comment-4 "about two hundred titles in the public domain are free for your use through Google Book Search" I would like if UTA would consider to follow UMich, Harvard and NYPL which are cataloging the Google books in its OPAC. OPACs mostly have the better meta-data than Google. It would be also a good idea to establish an additional UTA repository for (worldwide or US) PD Google books which are not shown by Google as full text. Unlike UMich efforts to establish a large MBooks repository for all Google Books from UMich UTA can limit its efforts to mirror Google books on the won server to some additions. “about two hundred titles in the public domain are free for your use through Google Book Search”

I would like if UTA would consider to follow UMich, Harvard and NYPL which are cataloging the Google books in its OPAC. OPACs mostly have the better meta-data than Google.

It would be also a good idea to establish an additional UTA repository for (worldwide or US) PD Google books which are not shown by Google as full text. Unlike UMich efforts to establish a large MBooks repository for all Google Books from UMich UTA can limit its efforts to mirror Google books on the won server to some additions.

]]> Comment on Rescuing orphans from obscurity by georgiak http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2007/11/27/rescuing-orphans-from-obscurity/comment-page-1/#comment-3 georgiak Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:28:02 +0000 http://dev.lib.utexas.edu/~jna279/lib-freethebooks/?p=3#comment-3 Thank you, Dave, for bringing this to our attention. It's early in the process for all of us who want to work on this problem, so the more ideas about how to go about it, the better. I think the crowd-sourcing idea is at the heart of a lot of people's thinking on this, though ultimately, the issue will be how much courage an individual user has, based on the available information at any given time, courage to make a use of a work always on the basis of imperfect information. I guess we had better get used to that idea, with Congress incapable of addressing concerns like these that lack unanimous support from the various copyright owner industries. I see that Copyright Clearance Center plans to support DiscoverWorks in its beginning, but will step away once the community takes active interest in the wiki's management. I applaud that intention and hope it works out for you that way. Thank you, Dave, for bringing this to our attention. It’s early in the process for all of us who want to work on this problem, so the more ideas about how to go about it, the better. I think the crowd-sourcing idea is at the heart of a lot of people’s thinking on this, though ultimately, the issue will be how much courage an individual user has, based on the available information at any given time, courage to make a use of a work always on the basis of imperfect information. I guess we had better get used to that idea, with Congress incapable of addressing concerns like these that lack unanimous support from the various copyright owner industries.

I see that Copyright Clearance Center plans to support DiscoverWorks in its beginning, but will step away once the community takes active interest in the wiki’s management. I applaud that intention and hope it works out for you that way.

]]> Comment on Rescuing orphans from obscurity by DaveDavis http://blogs.lib.utexas.edu/freethebooks/2007/11/27/rescuing-orphans-from-obscurity/comment-page-1/#comment-2 DaveDavis Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:35:23 +0000 http://dev.lib.utexas.edu/~jna279/lib-freethebooks/?p=3#comment-2 FYI in this context - some information about DiscoverWorks, a new wiki-based site we are bringing up towards addressing the orphan works problem, as well as dealing with other obscure works which may have long-term interest… "DiscoverWorks.org addresses orphan works issues and other challenges that arise from missing content metadata. DiscoverWorks.org was built on the same platform as Wikipedia. It is a global hub that allows people to freely exchange information on all kinds of copyrighted works as part of a worldwide, online community. Through their participation in this community, content users, creators and other participants can help create a resource where anyone, anywhere, can find or share rights information and other useful details on books, photos, graphic art, music, videos, textile designs and any other type of copyrighted material." We are in early beta, but if you would like to take a look and offer feedback, I'd be thrilled. One intended use of the DiscoverWorks platform is to create pages for obscure works and creators- those lacking critical metadata, for instance- whose obscurity might be reduced via a "crowdsourcing" (e.g. wikipedia-like) approach. Someone out there might know… http://www.discoverworks.org The site is non-commercial. (I am the Moderator for now.) /Dave Davis FYI in this context – some information about DiscoverWorks, a new wiki-based site we are bringing up towards addressing the orphan works problem, as well as dealing with other obscure works which may have long-term interest…

“DiscoverWorks.org addresses orphan works issues and other challenges that arise from missing content metadata. DiscoverWorks.org was built on the same platform as Wikipedia. It is a global hub that allows people to freely exchange information on all kinds of copyrighted works as part of a worldwide, online community. Through their participation in this community, content users, creators and other participants can help create a resource where anyone, anywhere, can find or share rights information and other useful details on books, photos, graphic art, music, videos, textile designs and any other type of copyrighted material.”

We are in early beta, but if you would like to take a look and offer feedback, I’d be thrilled. One intended use of the DiscoverWorks platform is to create pages for obscure works and creators- those lacking critical metadata, for instance- whose obscurity might be reduced via a “crowdsourcing” (e.g. wikipedia-like) approach. Someone out there might know…

http://www.discoverworks.org

The site is non-commercial. (I am the Moderator for now.)

/Dave Davis

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