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News & ArtsMonday, March 14, 2011
Books Question of the Day: Albert Einstein Edition
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 4:26 PM
On the heels of Amazon's announcement that they are now the exclusive e-book publishers of seven books by Albert Einstein, The Digital Reader asks a very, very good question*:
So here’s a guy who has been dead for 55 years, won’t benefit from this transaction, and yet his works are still under copyright rather than belonging to us all. How is that right?
We need some serious copyright reform in this country.
* And someone in the comments of that post points out that because the books will only be e-published in Kindle format, "Even worse, these are another seven books that will be unavailable to libraries in an electronic format."
1
In my design job, I once had to pay major bucks for the right to use a photograph of Einstein...apparently his family still owns the copyrights to all materials concerning him and his image, so there you go!
3
Examples like this are where I have no problem with the civil disobedience of piracy if others choose to do it.
4
I hate to tell you this, but as long as there is still a certain little singing mouse and the giant corporation who depends on him enough to shell out big bucks to extend his copyright, nothing will ever become public domain again.
6
@4 is correct. And if you're a law geek, you know that things are about to get much worse, not better.
11
You're definitely right about that, Paul. Especially when you can be arrested for copyright infringement just by linking to copyrighted material. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/10/ne…
12
@9, there's a case before the U.S. Supreme Court right now involving the federal government trying to re-impose copyright laws on works that are already in the public domain. Seriously, I'm not shitting you. I don't have the case in front of me, but the argument is apparently that this is necessary to make our laws conform more closely to international copyright laws, so we'll be in a better position to combat piracy in places with loose or non-existent copyright laws. Stay tuned.
13
@12 oh come on, next thing you know, you'll be telling us the Supreme Court thinks that Corporations are People.
Stop scaring people. Especially easily defrauded human ones.
Stop scaring people. Especially easily defrauded human ones.
15
I've done several reports on this issue. It used to be that you had to apply for a copyright, because we understood how stupid it would be to make everything automatically copyright. You had 14 years to make a profit, after that it goes back into the box. THIS MAKES SENSE. Then we made everything automatically copyright, and instead of 14 years we gave them their entire life, then we extended it to 70 year after their death because lawyers really wanted more business. Then the internet came and destroyed all the laws they worked so hard to create. It's either they're going to change the law, or I'll never stop breaking it. Take your pick industry. I'm going to show everyone I know the tricks I used to enlighten myself with media that she be ours. If you what the copyright so bad, you should have to earn it. The idea that this comment here should have copyright protection, simply because it exists, is total bullshit.
16
I work at a certain big box book retailer and the Higher Ups are notorious for letting customers do whatever they want in the store, much to the annoyance of their employees, unless the behavior is dangerous or OBVIOUSLY ILLEGAL. Taking photographs of books, inside or not, falls under the OBVIOUSLY ILLEGAL policy, seriously. It drives the managers nuts and they will approach and admonish the customer to stop immediately as THEY ARE BREAKING COPYRIGHT LAWS. A customer even got shown the door when he wouldn't stop, once.
Sigh, if only they would do that when customers build a nest of books and magazines, take their shoes and other clothing items off, take naps, spill coffee on merchandise, wander about drunkenly...
Sigh, if only they would do that when customers build a nest of books and magazines, take their shoes and other clothing items off, take naps, spill coffee on merchandise, wander about drunkenly...
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