Latest Site Notices

EmmaRiddle · 03-29-2009, 10:37 PM

The Times Online is running a story in tomorrow's newspaper about legal action being taken against the literary website, Scribd.com, which hosts free copies of novels, including those written by J.K. Rowling.

Quote:

When presented with a list of links to various Harry Potter books, Neil Blair, J. K. Rowling’s lawyer at the Christopher Little literary agency, said that Scribd did not have permission “and what you have identified are infringing listings which we were aware of and actioning”.

Quote:

Mindful of copyright concerns, Tammy Nam, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Scribd, says that it operates a “notice and takedown system”, where it removes books if their publishers demand it. She said: “If we get a request we usually respond in 24 hours.”

Source: The Leaky Cauldron

UPDATE: Scribd have since written a blog post challenging the Times Online article, accusing the journalist of poor fact checking.

Quote:

To make it absolutely clear, J.K. Rowling and the other authors mentioned are not suing Scribd and have never filed a lawsuit against us.

They explain, in some detail, why this is. The full story can be read here.

OtterySt.Catchpole · 03-31-2009, 04:22 AM

Wow. Censorship!

Just kidding ... they really shouldn't post books up that are still under copyright protection. God knows there's enough free ones on gutenberg they could just appropriate, those things are free. Why wait to be asked to stop doing something you know is clearly wrong.

I'd sue for damages ... to my ego at the very least, the gall.

*Judge Teddy slams the gavel and finds in Otty's favor and awards him 6 bizzillion dollars for being offended on JK's behalf*

Now the problem would be collecting ...

Mistress Vondella · 03-31-2009, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iwantorlando05

Wow. That's sooo illegal. No wonder JKR's lawyers are taking action. I wonder if other authors are going to do the same...they definitely should.

Not necessarily, have you been to YouTube recently? Wouldn't that be considered illegal too?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedheadQueen

So.....I love the fact that the spokesperson said "they take action" and yet if you search the page, they are still there. Ummmm, if they are taking legal action against you then they want you to take them down!

I hope people stop trying to get away with crap! Jo is a good person who helps others, if you take $$ from Jo you take it away from all the charities she supports! Just go to the Library!!

She said they take action if the PUBLISHERS request removal. Technically, JK only holds PART of a copy right, the publishers get the rest. If JK had gone to her publishers, and they had approached the site, then they would have been taken down....but given that the site is Literary YouTube....it could take a while.

Quote:

Originally Posted by harrys_other_broom

its kinda the same thing as people downloading music and tv shows and movies from the internet for free. Its wrong.

Is it? Or do you say that because you believe it, or because they tell you it is? Have you seen hulu? I've seen lots of TV Shows off that. It's also getting out to the masses a lot easier. Independents LOVE the sharing, they get spread out to loads more people who then buy their stuff. The only people that complain are the Big Companies who want every little bit of stuff they didn't have a thing to do with in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taiya89

Yeah! If you can afford to have internet then you can afford to buy the books!
Besides, they cheaper and you can take them anywhere! You can't take your Computer everywhere...yeah, many places...but you can take your books more places!
BUY THE BOOKS!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Esme

I agree that they shouldn't read the books for free online however as someone who kinda does download stuff for free... Anyway by some comments all of you are assuming that they do pay for their internet. I don't my mum does and let me tell you my internet is a whole lot cheaper than all seven Harry Potter books. Specially since I made my mum buy them all twice... Besides libraries and schools have computers too so they could just as easily accessed it on computers they don't pay for, using internet they don't pay for. Meaning it's just as logical that they can't pay for the books and not everyone is a member of a library or have a library near where they live. Anyway websites like that are good in my opinion however I do agree that they shouldn't put up the stories without permission and that maybe they should only show part of the story with you having to pay for more chapters or whatever. I'm not saying it's wrong for J.K to be suing the website just that all of you harping on people that use said website is wrong.

Esme said exactly what I wanted to reply. I'd also like to add in "WiFi" you can go loads of places with a laptop and get online for free.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

As opposed to simply not doing this very illegal thing in the first place. H'mm...better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, much? O__o

Think YouTube....they don't technically get blamed. Great plan! Watch, they'll be suing the 13year olds who actually posted the stuff next.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessica94ear

i think this is completely fair - if you want a book, you buy it - if you can't afford the book, go to your city's central library and borrow it.

Gee, I'm glad YOUR library has everything you want to read. I can't get anything at my library and, with the way the economy is now, I can't always afford a $10+ book. I've bills of my own to pay, and I'm not getting enough hours at work. So, I'm not allowed to enjoy HP?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebony_wandson

*rolls eyes* Here we go again.....

Do you think that JK's lawyers employ someone to sit and trawl the internet and then they have monday morning meetings to decide whom to sue this time?

*gigglesnortdieslaughing* I'm beginning to wonder. I mean, I can understand protecting copyright and all, but they've already gone after HP fans (lexicon) because JK doesn't want to believe her terms are as well known as "Happy Birthday" (a song that CANNOT be copy-righted due to how well known it is, the original writer/his family cannot get money off it)

And I found out recently that "muggle" wasn't actually invented by JK, so she should have NO right to that word at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thumper

All this bugs me most of the time. If you think about it, as someone else pointed out, librarys are there for a reason. Now, I really don't like like the sound of an online library, just read the actual book. So I get why they're taking legal action against them, but why, when the HP books take quite awhile to read through would you want to read them online? Just go to your local library and read the book! And why do they keep sueing people, or 'taking legal action'...

it's a good question, wouldn't surprise me at all if they do actually

I can't get a lot at my library, and now they refuse to accept my address to check books out, so I'm SOL (sore outta luck) when it comes to Libraries. I would LOVE an online library, no late fees, no worrying about messing it up...nothing.

Exactly....have they ever considered just approaching them and saying "You know, that's not cool. How about you stop that?"

I worry that one day they'll decide the fansites have too much freedom with her work and they'll stop us. They're too law-suit happy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SheydaMalfoy

Oh, no. Another lawsuit. Sighh. But it's still fair of them -- people shouldn't be getting her books of the internet.

Why not? If we all bought e-books, we wouldn't be wasting all that paper, and cutting down all those trees that JK was so worried about she used recycled paper, so now those trees get cut down for new paper for schools who are just going to throw it away.

Just saying....

Quote:

Originally Posted by OtterySt.Catchpole

Wow. Censorship!

Just kidding ... they really shouldn't post books up that are still under copyright protection. God knows there's enough free ones on gutenberg they could just appropriate, those things are free. Why wait to be asked to stop doing something you know is clearly wrong.

I'd sue for damages ... to my ego at the very least, the gall.

*Judge Teddy slams the gavel and finds in Otty's favor and awards him 6 bizzillion dollars for being offended on JK's behalf*

Now the problem would be collecting ...

As someone said, it's like YouTube......I can go on and upload part of any book, and only if they're trolling the web looking for people doing things they don't like does anything get said, otherwise it's there for people to enjoy.

I do have to wonder though....with how many people are against the "unlawful reading" of JKs books....how many have loaned them out? Let their friends read them for free? That would technically be illegal too, they didn't pay for it, and you didn't have a 'right to distribute' the way a library does (that's why it usually takes longer for libraries to get those books)

How many use (or have used) limewire or similar to download music?

How many are only "*GASP* Thats WRONG!That's ILLEGAL!" because JK's lawyers are on the prowl?

Antarctica · 03-31-2009, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mistress Vondella

I do have to wonder though....with how many people are against the "unlawful reading" of JKs books....how many have loaned them out? Let their friends read them for free? That would technically be illegal too, they didn't pay for it, and you didn't have a 'right to distribute' the way a library does (that's why it usually takes longer for libraries to get those books)

The comparison doesn't quite hold, though. I don't live in the US, so I'm not up to date on the intricacies of the silly DMCA, but at least over here, sharing copyrighted works (books, DVDs, CDs, whatever) with family members and friends is not considered copyright infringement under the law. Not to mention that in some countries it's not illegal at all to download things, only the upload is.

The legality of sites like Scribd, YouTube, Rapidshare etc. is difficult to determine because their content is added by users, not the site itself. Scribd's policy of reacting to DMCA notices is a fair compromise, I'd say.