More on TechnologyTell: Gadget News | Apple News
Is this why Conde Nast went after Blackmask?
June 20, 2006 | 8:26 pm
|
By David Rothman
“The Shadow and Doc Savage are returning to thrill fans old and new. Anthony Tollin has acquired the license to reprint the original Shadow and Doc Savage pulp novels, and will be publishing trade paperback reprints in partnership with Nostalgia Ventures, Inc., a leader in the field of radio and television nostalgia.” – Info quoted by Pond on the eBook Community List.
|
Previous
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
Comments:
I wonder what this will mean for Blackmask? There was more than just the contested pulps available for download and it would be a shame for the site to disappear entirely. Are there any updates on the situation?
I agree–a true shame. I’ve emailed Blackmask for another update. Nothing received so far, to my knowledge. As noted in another comment, I’ve also emailed Conde Nast for its side. I hope that it and Blackmask can compromise. – DR
Off topic, but Amazon appears to have started a service based on Authors blogging on the same page their books are sold from [AmazonConnect].
Check it out (look for AmazonConnect).
From FindLaw.com:
“The Shadow’ Publisher Seeks Judgment Against Internet ‘Pirate’”
http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bt/int/20060606/20060606advance.html
The fate of Blackmask is purely in the owner’s hands on this one. He could have removed the offending content from the site and continued negotiating with the publishers to try to find a compromise. But at the end of the day, what David was distributing was not his property; it was not his creation or that of people voluntarily working with him, so I can’t be very sympathetic.
If a private party has paid for licensing rights to reprint this stuff, they have every right to expect that their investment and business model will not be undercut by someone else distributing that material for free, particularly if the copyright status of the works if unclear, or clearly not public domain.
The fact that David is representing himself speaks volumes. I also doubt that the courts will support the Adverse Possession defense, given how retro-active copyrights have been succesfully enforced in the past.
I think David was working too hard, and all judgment fled. I think he will lose badly.
The work he did for years and years built an invaluable online resource. I hope he will get it back on the web, in whatever form. I wonder if it was self-supporting, or even paid his living expenses, given that most of it was free….