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Tenth Most Popular Borrowed E-Book Restricted in US, Public Domain in Australia |
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Teleread points to a survey of the ten most popular "borrowed" e-books for the first half of 2004 (OverDrive's library stats: 'Dude' most borrowed e-book, Adobe most used reader). Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? is number one. However, interestingly, George Orwell's 1984 is tenth.
What is interesting about 1984 is not only that it is probably the best literature on the list, but that it has to be "borrowed." You see, you can download free copies from the internet, because in Australia, unlike the US, 1984 has entered the public domain. US library e-book users can only "borrow" 1984 as an ebook. Aussies can download a copy and keep it forever. As Teleread points out, however, Aussies are considering changing the law and undoubtedly, as in the US, free works will once again be locked up. It is called copyright "restoration," as if the public domain has damaged the work or something, a use of the term Orwell would probably have ironically appreciated.
You can download works in the public domain in Australia (but not in some other nations) here: Project Gutenberg of Australia. Be warned, however, Under Australian copyright law, literary, dramatic, & musical work published, performed, communicated, or recorded and offered for sale in an author's lifetime are protected for the life of the author plus fifty years from the end of the year of the author's death. However, they may remain copyrighted in other countries. Do not download or read these books online if you are in a country where copyright protections can extend more than 50 years past an author's death. The author's estate and publishers still retain their legal and moral rights to oversee the work in those countries. [emphasis added]
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Re: Tenth Most Popular Borrowed E-Book Restricted in US, Public Domain in Australia (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Monday, June 28 @ 09:06:44 EDT | Who is breaking what law in which jurisdiction if a party in the USA downloads a work from Australia, where the work is in the public domain in Australia, but protected by copyright in the USA? Presumably it must be the American party that is infringing on the copyright, if anyone is, for what legal theory could make the Australian party culpable? But would the situation be different if the American party printed and bound a copy of "1984" for himself on a visit to Australia? What a mire.
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"Legal and moral rights" (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Monday, June 28 @ 12:33:41 EDT | So now the local politicians get to define what's moral? |
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Re: Tenth Most Popular Borrowed E-Book Restricted in US, Public Domain in Australia (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Monday, June 28 @ 18:35:53 EDT | Actually, while Australia is extending its copyright term, it is not hauling public domain works back into copyright. Whatever is public domain now, stays there. As the minnow in the trade talks, I'm afraid that's all we could get. Dammit. (posted by Kim Weatherall) |
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