SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
El Reg reports
The US Copyright Office is asking the tech industry and members of the public to comment about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and in particular the rules governing copyright infringement.
Section 512 of the DMCA gives ISPs and internet hosts immunity from prosecution if material that infringes copyright, such as music tracks, is taken down promptly if the entity owning the rights to it protests. "Repeat infringers" are penalized.
[...] The DMCA was signed into law in 1998, and since then flaws have been consistently pointed out in the legislation, not least with section 512. So the Copyright Office wants to know how to improve things.
"The Office will consider the costs and burdens of the notice-and-takedown process on large- and small-scale copyright owners, online service providers, and the general public", the request reads.
"The Office will also review how successfully section 512 addresses online infringement and protects against improper takedown notices. To aid in this effort, and to provide thorough assistance to Congress, the Office is seeking public input on a number of key questions."
In the request for responses, the Office posits 28 questions it would like answered, including how the legislation is working in practice, what legal precedents are affecting its operation, and whether takedown notices are effective. It also asks for any academic studies on the matter.
[...] The guidelines for submissions will be posted on February 1 and the open period for comments ends on March 21, so there's plenty of time to get a submission ready. How much good this will do, however, remains to be seen.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @04:55AM
They're telling the record industry, we insist that you write us a letter for each instance of a violation.
A crappy old scan of my book appeared in someone's Google Docs/Drive the other day. Since my publisher hasn't created an eBook version yet, this is a cut&dried (C) violation.
I followed the link to the Google complaint page and filled out their DMCA form. There was a box where I could enter many URLs, although in this case there was only one that I found. They also asked me for a URL that showed where the same book is available legitimately and I provided a link to my publisher's online store. They asked me to "sign" with a note that making false statements is potentially criminal. Then they sent me a link to a page where I could monitor their response. After a couple of days the dashboard showed "removed" and when I checked the original link was dead.
For a little guy, this worked very nicely. What I don't know (yet) is if they bother to check future uploads and block that same crappy scan the next time someone attempts to put it on Google Drive...
(related) For several years, ScribeD hosted many copies of that same scan. Every time they took it down (similar deal, but had to email them a form letter in specific format) they always sent a response that bragged about their content checking system. After some frustration, I finally got the answer, their "advanced fingerprinting" system to prevent repeat uploads only worked on text files! Since the crappy scan of my book is a binary image, I suggested they expand their pattern matching capability. Eventually it seems like they did, because they no longer host this infringing scan.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tibman on Saturday January 09 2016, @07:07AM
It really sounds like people want a digital copy of your book and because you and/or your publisher haven't provided one they have resorted to piracy.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Saturday January 09 2016, @06:11PM
Yes, even if only 10% of the filthy pirates circulating a copy of your book right now even bother to pay, by not providing the option to, you've cut out sales to those 10%, and eliminated the chance to convert any of the others. Those people are not lost profits. Those people are pirates. The ones that are pirating because there is no other alternative, well I suppose you could ask them nicely to not pirate, but you'd be best off offering to sell them what they want.
You also cut yourself off from people that demonstrate demand, could provide feedback or otherwise benefit you in ways that do not directly translate into a royalty check.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday January 09 2016, @07:53AM
A crappy old scan of my book appeared in someone's Google Docs/Drive the other day.
Wow, you are really dense. Who are you, and what it the title of your crappy book? If you had provided this information, thousands of Soylentils would be reading your work as we speak! But no, you prefer to depend on an access restrictor, a "publisher", who now is the exact opposite of what their name implies. So I will never read your book. Nor will any Soylentil, or any citizen of the internets. You have dug yourself into a hole of obscurity and incompetence, so no one, and I mean no one, will have sympathy for you or your pathetic and anonymous (and unavailable) literary works. Sorry, bro!
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday January 09 2016, @09:15AM
A further observation to support your point...
Many of us here know who Cory Doctorow [craphound.com] is.
He even has people like me and others shamelessly promoting him. Without pay or even being asked to. We do it from the concept of sharing. Just as we apply our time and energies to keep sites like SN active. Its in our psyche. Sharing. Giving of ourselves as a form of paying what others gave us forward.
Damn near all of us here will do it.
I have been reading these forums for too long to know generally what kind of people hang out here. Really good people. And I wish we had more of this kind around.
Does anyone here know who this other author is?
If not, his DRM worked! Its as if he never existed!
Now, if everyone felt that way, where would all of us be?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @02:59PM
...thousands of Soylentils would be reading your work as we speak!
I strongly doubt it, this isn't the entertainment market. For anyone still reading:
o It is an engineering reference book, ~1000 pages and full of detailed explanations, algebra & trig. It's printed on quality paper and has a long lasting sewn binding (NOT textbook binding that is designed to fall apart after a year or so).
o A few dozen universities use it for a textbook and the publisher sells it to students for under $100, considerably less than a typical college textbook.
o I depend on my publisher because the publishing contract was signed in 1993 (book is (C) 1995). In exchange for royalties, they have exclusive rights to the book as long as they keep it in print.
o The publisher has done a good job of honoring their side of the contract including advertizing the book very effectively to the target/niche audience (which is not IT). In the face of rising prices, they have maintained high quality printing/binding over a dozen reprints (a few thousand copies each printing).
Would I sign a similar contract with a publisher if I was writing this book now? Of course not, the publishing world has changed. Some other arrangement would be needed, perhaps a corporate sponsor. Would I stick with paper, probably yes, the ability to stick in post-its, write in the margin, and turn actual pages feels right to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @06:53PM
Lindeburg! Is that you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @07:40PM
> ...but you'd be best off offering to sell them what they want.
You forgot the bit about signing a publishing contract (back in 1993). If there is going to be an ebook version, that's up to the publisher -- I have no direct control over that. This particular publisher hasn't done very well with ebooks for their other titles, I think it's less than 10% of sales.
I did say that if there is ever "volume 2" (not all that likely), my preference would be to have it on paper, at least initially.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday January 09 2016, @04:34PM
I doubt the AC you replied to ever wrote a book. Most likely he's a MAFIAA shill, or he would have told us his name and the title of his book. In a situation like that where he's not self-published, the publisher's legal staff would have taken care of the situation, since they paid for publication rights (meaning Mr. greedy AC was already paid).
You can read and download mine for free, I'll only come after you if you try to make money off of my work.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 09 2016, @06:03PM
> the publisher's legal staff would have taken care of the situation, since they paid for publication rights (meaning Mr. greedy AC was already paid).
The publisher is currently shorthanded, so I handled the takedown with Google Drive myself, and my contact at the publisher was appreciative. They take care of most of them, but the woman that used to play whack-a-mole with websites hosting the crappy scan is away (maternity leave, I believe).
Feel free to call me greedy, but after 20 years, the time that went into producing the book has paid back at a modest hourly rate (adding up all the royalties). Less than I make now for contract engineering. I did not get an advance from the publisher, instead contracted for a two-tier royalty, I gambled that sales would be good and a higher % kicked in after sales were enough to approximately cover production costs. It is possible to deal with publishers, I re-wrote quite a bit of the contract they first offered.
And I know that I was lucky, many/most reference and specialist text books make very little money.