Comments on: What the Dickens? ‘Cut classics’! Concept applicable to e-books? http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/what-the-dickens-cut-classics-concept-applicable-to-e-books/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:33:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: David E. Siegel http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/what-the-dickens-cut-classics-concept-applicable-to-e-books/comment-page-1/#comment-225040 David E. Siegel Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:59:05 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6161#comment-225040 "While public domain classics are free in theory, remember that it’s cricket to include a copyrighted introductory essay, thereby in effect making the whole file copyrighted." This is indeed a perfectly acceptable and common practice, but it does NOT in any way make the whole file copyrighted. One need merely edit the file to remove the copyrighted content before reposting or otherwise copying it. US copyright law is clear that a copyright notice on PD content published with new additions (such as a critical intro) does not give any protection to the PD content. I am working on a book for Distributed Proofreaders right now. The copy i have is a reprint with a modern critical intro. i simply omit the intro ans any other copyrighted content from the version uploaded to DP. “While public domain classics are free in theory, remember that it’s cricket to include a copyrighted introductory essay, thereby in effect making the whole file copyrighted.”

This is indeed a perfectly acceptable and common practice, but it does NOT in any way make the whole file copyrighted. One need merely edit the file to remove the copyrighted content before reposting or otherwise copying it. US copyright law is clear that a copyright notice on PD content published with new additions (such as a critical intro) does not give any protection to the PD content.

I am working on a book for Distributed Proofreaders right now. The copy i have is a reprint with a modern critical intro. i simply omit the intro ans any other copyrighted content from the version uploaded to DP.

]]> By: Alexandre Rafalovitch http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/what-the-dickens-cut-classics-concept-applicable-to-e-books/comment-page-1/#comment-218025 Alexandre Rafalovitch Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:00:12 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6161#comment-218025 One interesting variation on the theme is <a href="http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/index.htm" rel="nofollow">Squashed Philosophers</a> project, which condenses long works into a readable text of only the most important passages. This is not changing the pbook for the e-medium; they actually sell POD p-books of that too. It is however a display of what is possible with public domain material. Now, if an ebook publication had the squashed version with the option of opening up the skipped parts, <strong>that</strong> would be using the e-medium for maximum advantage. One interesting variation on the theme is Squashed Philosophers project, which condenses long works into a readable text of only the most important passages.

This is not changing the pbook for the e-medium; they actually sell POD p-books of that too. It is however a display of what is possible with public domain material. Now, if an ebook publication had the squashed version with the option of opening up the skipped parts, that would be using the e-medium for maximum advantage.

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