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Blackmask: Site could be back up–and LOC has ‘approved’ transfer of Doc Savage and Shadow titles, ‘with reservations’
May 9, 2006 | 3:57 pm
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By David Rothman
Just received from David Moynihan, owner of the much-missed Blackmask (don’t count on the link working right now):
Let’s see:
they [Conde Nast] sent a DMCA Takedown Notice,
We’ve issued a counter-notice,
The ISP has deemed said counter valid, and oh yeah, the LOC [Library of Congress copyright office] just approved the transfer of all Doc and Shadow titles (with reservations).
It unfortunately takes 10 days from receipt of counter notice until my two sites can be back up.
Other things happening that I cannot comment on, so, I think I’ll go to China for a week.
Actually, this was planned, partly a biz trip related to that Monkey… which I hope somebody has a copy of.
Yes, there are questions, especially about exact meanings of “transfer” and “reservations”; and that “Monkey” business escapes me right now. But so far this appears to be a much better outcome than Blackmask’s going out of business. While I wouldn’t have taken on Conde Nast on the matter, I wish David the very best of luck at getting the Blackmask site and a related one going again.
Meanwhile it’s clear that the fight with CN is continuing.
I invite both sides–(1) David and (2) Conde Nast–to make their cases and update us in the TeleBlog comment area.
Related: Earlier item on Blackmask’s fight with CN over the disputed titles. Also see John Mark Ockerbloom’s latest observations.
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Comments:
I’m glad Blackmask will be back! I’m still using a Nuvomedia Rocket ebook and it’s one of the few ebook sites where I can get books in the format I need. I know I can read on a PDA and I do have one but the older I get the more those small screens strain my eyes. So here’s hoping the site will be back up soon.
We’ll hope. I did change the headline from “will” to “could” since there are still unknowns galore. Even David has just used “can.” But we’ll hope that “will” is the operative word. Thanks. David
Notice how easy it is for a company like Conde Nast to completely shut down the operations of a “competitor” merely by alleging infringement and invoking the DMCA. In what way is Blackmask violating the provisions of the DMCA? The ISP is forced to shut down the services, lest they be sued as an accomplice.
Here’s a bad law that is being abused by a company that has plenty of resources and no compunction about its behavior.
This whole Conde Nast thing look’s like a “I’m taking bat and ball and going home” scenario.
I recently bought the complete Blackmask DVDs: a) to help give David some cash to fight with and b) just in case the site does go down permanently. I don’t know if he’s still distributing them now the case is on but it wouldn’t hurt to ask. It’s the greatest bargain you are likely to get this century.
Jon.
I’m a big fan of blackmask, but this episode is definitely scaring me. Blackmask is really the only website which offers a variety of ebook formats (Yes, I can build them myself, but…).
copyright disputes like this are inevitable; we need some way to insulate individual legal disputes from the site as a whole. Then again, is Moynihan making any money from this? Is it realistic to put the burden of providing public domain ebook files to the world on the back of a single individual?
Perhaps instead we need some sort of nonprofit group that can serve public domain ebook binary files.
Another thought. Why doesn’t somebody distribute periodic bittorrent ebook zips? Do it every 3 months, with separate torrents for plucker, ebookwise, rb, msreader, etc. I’m guessing, but ebookwise files are 100-500KB, with maybe 50 files a week. That comes to about 1-2 gigs per format per year.
In the dark accursed forest of corporate publishing Kings, their ISP sheriffs, and some Robin Hoods like Mr. Moynihan, I’m just a leaf on a wee tree. I’m starting to sell large-print, accessibly formatted ebooks on eBay in connection with my site, easy-reading.com. (This is not a multi-million dollar business.)
No doubt like other amateurs in the dying sport of reading and supplying texts to read, I’ve been sitting blind in the bushes, not really believing the tales of corporate dinosaurs stomping Merry Men in the mud. But Virginia, I guess they’re true.
Plato posed the right question. Socrates remarks to Thrasymachus that by definition the art/mission of real rulers is to care for their subjects, as the job of a shepherd is to care for the sheep. Thrasymachus laughs, as a Conde-Nast lawyer would smirk, and suggests that Socrates get his head out of its awkward hiding place and see life as it is.
Then Socrates says, “Oh, I see. You’re thinking of another art — the art/mission of wage earning (making Money).
The arguments go on, but the Big Question has been posed for then and now: Essentially, bottom-line, what are you doing? For example, as a publisher, are you (a) providing literature for the entertainment and enlightenment, maybe, of your customers and (b) getting paid for your efforts. Or are you (a) MAKING MONEY (in this case by selling books etc.)?
Well, I guess we know the usual Big Answer today. But I have a little question, leaf-sized. What’s the best way to find out if the Blackmask DVDs are still available — from Moynihan, eBay, or someplace — and how to buy one. It sounds like an excellent business investment for me. Thanks for any help you can give.
— Major Johnson
major.johnson@pobox.com
310-826-4198
http://www.easy-reading.com
“Perhaps instead we need some sort of nonprofit group that can serve public domain ebook binary files.” – Robert N.
Actually, Robert, you’re in LibraryCity territory. That’s part of what we intend to do–serve up PD titles. But why the “instead”? I’d be delighted if David M used our titles.
I don’t control LibraryCity single-handedly (others involved are Jon Noring and librarians Rochelle Hartman and Alev Akman, as well as a K-12 group called LINCT), but if I have my druthers and it’s financially possible, we’ll make PD books available in different formats even for commerical use without charge. Whether a site is a nonprofit like Gutenberg or a for-profit, I want the books read.
For all of David M’s past talk about commerce, I suspect he feels the same way–which is cool, and one of the reason I want his site to survive. It is actually my favorite PD site because it’s well-organized and, of course, has a variety of formats to help people cope with the Tower of eBabel. (Two other good ones are manybooks.net and Gutentalk, of course.) I really hope that David and CN can reach a compromise to the mutual benefit of both.
THIS lawsuit or court debate ,what ever you want to name it , is a farce,a joke but maybe expensive one !
I COULD SEE if conde was publishing more shadow novels or finaceing a movie or something in that line ,but as far as i know [ i search the net almost daily for news on a new shadow ,be it print ,or video] , and as far as i can tell there is nothing but talk
and that comes from the fans so all this tells me is conde nast
is greedy! there is no merit to this lawsuit or court battle !
I SAY AS A SHADOW FAN FOR 40 YEARS PUT UP OR SHUT UP CONDE!!!!!
The thing is…what does this really mean?
I was talking it over with a friend of mine, and he pointed out that transferring ownership of property is not the copyright office’s job—it just stores records of what people send them. Adjucating property disputes is a job for the courts.
Furthermore, section 201(e) of the copyright code states (emphases mine)…
I don’t think this means that Blackmask has necessarily won yet.
It really astonishes me that a site that is so valuable to many students and readers all over the world can be shut down by Big Business just to grab every cent they can get hold of. Blackmask does more to promote international friendship and co-operation than the Conde Nast organisation could ever dream of.
Why doesn’t the Conde Nast organisation do the right thing and sponsor Blackmask? They might do their corporate image some good – this lawsuit certainly won’t do that!
The DMCA has been abused for an estimated 30% of the cases it was invoked, IIRC. Which amazes me, as the lawyers who send in these things have to swear on penalty of perjury that they really do believe there’s a case of infringement. Perjury is a crime; it means the lawyer who uses a DMCA take-down notice just to bully a site should go to jail. Either US DAs are really lazy, or the 30% figure is exaggerated.
In this case Condé Nast probably do have a claim, regardless of which way the judge will swing. As David M. has pointed out, he has sent in a counter-notice, and the site should be back up shortly. The only thing this has achieved is that the hosting provider can no longer be held liable for contributory copyright infringement.
I am not a big fan of copyright (not just today’s overreaching copyright, but any copyright); nevertheless, if we are to have a copyright system, I don’t see what is wrong to hold the online equivalent of a book shop (the hosting provider) accountable for the works he helps distribute. If a RL bookstore were to sell unauthorized copies of a book, and would continue to do so after the right sholder informed them of the infringement, they can be held liable too. The DMCA may be bad law for various reasons, but the general idea of letting providers absolve themselves is a good one.
(The execution is definitely atrocious; a site should stay up so that the accused can respond within a reasonable time-frame.)
I “claim” you are distributing my copyrighted material on your website. I find a way to invoke the DMCA. Now I can sue the ISP if it doesn’t immediately cut you loose. What can the ISP do? It has no choice but to shut you down.
And that’s what Conde Nast has done with Blackmask.
Whether Blackmask is infringing on Conde Nast’s copyright in some cases or not, it should be a matter settled in court or arbitration. CNP shouldn’t be able to close down an online company’s website over a civil matter like this. But with such shallow pockets, I doubt Moynihan can sue CNP back for damages and for making false statements, which it seems obvious that they did.
(Full disclosure: I once worked at a CNP publication.)
Why couldn’t they have just shut down the pages to the two books in question instead of the whole website? I don’t really know the ethics of this, and I suspect that what Conde Nast has done is unfair, but why should the other books that indefinitely aren’t violating copyright laws be shut down too? It seems to me like a case of throwing the baby (the other 10,000 books) out with the bathwater (the two in question).
Roger: What “false statements”?
Blackmask.com was hosting copies of the Doc Savage and Shadow novels. That’s verifiable.
The Doc Savage and the Shadow novels are still under copyright to Conde Nast. Also verifiable. (See reader comments here for details.)
Therefore, Conde Nast was perfectly within its rights to issue a DMCA takedown order.
It may be true that 30% of DMCA uses are abuses—but there’s no sign that this was one of them. Sure we’re all disgruntled because we like us some free ebooks—but if those free ebooks include ones that belong to someone else, in the eyes of the law that’s no different from if they were offering DVDrips of the MPAA’s latest “masterpieces.”
I’m not a lawyer or anything, but from what I’ve read, our current copyright law system is heavily slanted in favor of the copyright-owners. It is deemed better to stop the operation of the defendant, and thus limit further potential damages to the plaintiff, immediately, than to have to wait a few more days to get a restraining order. When used legitimately (as it is in this case), it’s just a shortcut anyway; it gives the plaintiff the time they need to get a more permanent restraining order. The eventual outcome would not have been different; the site would have been up for a few more days but would have had to be taken down when the restraining order went into effect anyway. Now, granted, in a case like this where Blackmask has been going for years without Conde Nast taking any notice, it seems kind of petty to DMCA them for those additional few days—but that is what the law is there for.
Can someone explain why blackmask cannot continue to operate for those ebooks whose copyright is not in dispute while discontinuing (if only temporarily) those volumes for which Conde Nast claims ownership?
I would imagine because the court order said so. Though, in the absense of being able to examine that court order, it’s impossible to know.
So, does anyone have the actual court case details?
I am not familiar enough with the US justice system to know where to look (assuming such details are available at all).
According to an earlier quote: “The case goes before a [magistrate] in Greenbelt, MD on May 8.” Parties are presumably David Moynihan/Blackmask.com and Conde Nast.
So, either nothing happened, the information is not available, or it is only actually availabl eif you wander into that courtroom and ask for it?
In theory, anything that would happen in the courtroom would be a matter of public record. One could probably request transcripts, but I have no idea where you would even begin to look.
Is there a website or newsource where I could follow the “Blackmask Case”?, (though you guys seem to be doing a fairly good job of it here). Is there a place where I could buy the Blackmask content online? (The legal bits, that is…) And, thirdly, what is the third best online source for online book texts after gutenberg and blackmask? Thank you for any knowledge you can impart to me.
Hi, Cindy.
1) Nope. I’ve asked David Moynihan for an update.
2) Not sure. There is a site that may carries Blackmask titles, but apparently the iffy ones are mixed up with the good ones. Better to steer clear of Blackmask stuff until this is over.
3) For public domain, try manybooks.net.
Good luck,
David
i’ve been trying to log on to blackmask for a week now and i’ve just discovered that the new age tyrants had stopped it.it is a shock for me at least for i’ve accumulated a great wealth of knowledge from it.one word is enough for those tyrants “go to hell!!”
waiting for your return soon
Hi there
As a Brit, I truly believed America was the ‘land of the free’. Not so apparently. I too am appalled to discover my favourite site has been killed off. I will keep checking back. Conde Nast will never get my business.
Come back soon.