Re: [gutvol-d] Re: unauthorized PG venders
You can do all that just fine as long as you aren't charging for the redistribution. The money only comes into play if your are charging something for the redistributed works. Basically, if you're charging for it, we want our fair cut. If you're handing them out for free, no problem. See you on the flip side, dude! :) JHutch ----- Original Message ----- From: "David A. Desrosiers" <hacker@gnu-designs.com> Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 14:47:32 -0400 (EDT) To: gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] Re: unauthorized PG venders
Formatting (or reformatting) is not the issue, it's use of the trademarked name.
Agreed, but reformatting would likely include the trademark.
If someone creates, say, a PDF format eBook, the question is whether the PG trademark is used or not. The reformatting doesn't matter (except that it might change from the 15% to the 20% royalty level in the small print).
Ok, so our only real recourse, gives us the right to convert the works to another format (we're talking about handheld redistribution here) but not provide any links to PG, or use PG in any of the names or attribution? Wouldn't that be a copyright _and_ trademark violation, because we'd be forced to "remove" all references to PG from the actual works themselves. Obviously, I don't want to do this, because I respect and support the project.
Doesn't that make it impossible, since our entire intention would be to include PG in each of the texts, to draw more readers of the works and generate some interest in the project.
Ideally, and I can expand on this if anyone is specifically interested in the goals and design, we would be splitting the books up to include pages, chapters, TOC, attribution, and hopefully a PG logo emblazened across each work.
I've got a schema and some code designed to suck the entire PG tree into the db, which we can then tokenize and output in any format we want.
It isn't polished or "pretty" yet, we're still in the preliminary stages, but if we can't redistribute the converted works, giving credit to PG, the project is dead, full-stop.
Let me know, because this puts a big kink in the works.
d.
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You can do all that just fine as long as you aren't charging for the redistribution. The money only comes into play if your are charging something for the redistributed works. Basically, if you're charging for it, we want our fair cut. If you're handing them out for free, no problem. See you on the flip side, dude! :)
Right, and thats the catch.. We'd be handing the works out for free in person at LUGs and such, but for those people that want _our version_ of the converted works, which involves quite a bit of hand-editing as well as several passes of post-processing to convert them to our (open and documented) portable format, shipped to them on hard-media (CD or DVD), we would (potentially) charge for the media and for the time/effort expended to convert them all. We're not actually charging for the works themselves. I realize it seems grey, but it is distinctly different. d.
On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 03:41:56PM -0400, David A. Desrosiers wrote:
You can do all that just fine as long as you aren't charging for the redistribution. The money only comes into play if your are charging something for the redistributed works. Basically, if you're charging for it, we want our fair cut. If you're handing them out for free, no problem. See you on the flip side, dude! :)
Right, and thats the catch..
We'd be handing the works out for free in person at LUGs and such, but for those people that want _our version_ of the converted works, which involves quite a bit of hand-editing as well as several passes of post-processing to convert them to our (open and documented) portable format, shipped to them on hard-media (CD or DVD), we would (potentially) charge for the media and for the time/effort expended to convert them all.
We're not actually charging for the works themselves.
I realize it seems grey, but it is distinctly different.
If you're doing reformatting and/or error correction, it would be nice to submit these changes back (email errata@pglaf.org). If it's just format conversion, it's probably not necessary. If you create new CD or DVD images, we would consider redistributing them. Our existing CD and DVD images have licenses (the CD is a Creative Commons, including for a compilation copyright); the DVD is just under the regular PG Small Print). As to whether royalties are due: this is something that can be directed to Michael Hart and I for decision. Typically we do not expect royalties if there is a fee, but only to cover costs of reproduction & distribution. Generally, we like to see all types of redistribution. What we don't like to see is trading on the Project Gutenberg name without our permission or without paying royalties as required. I hope this helps... once you have your plan worked out, please do get in touch. -- Greg Dr. Gregory B. Newby Chief Executive and Director Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation http://gutenberg.net A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with EIN 64-6221541 gbnewby@pglaf.org
participants (3)
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David A. Desrosiers -
Greg Newby -
Joshua Hutchinson