Re: Who Checks to See that the Publisher Has Rights (was Re: Amazon remotely deletes 1984)

On Jul 26, 2009, at 9:37 AM, joseph harris wrote:

>
> From: "Mary E Tyler"
>>>
>>> A serious player in the field can hardly claim that they don't
>>> understand copyright issues. An ISBN is, in itself, a check of
>>> sorts. This identifies the publisher and validates their physical
>>> reality in so far as the ISBN purchase process has a system to do  
>>> so.
>>
>> UM, wouldn't the ISBN be an Australian one issued by Australia? Not a
>> US ISBN issues by a US publisher? How is Amazon supposed to
>> automatically compare the books? By title? I mean, NO two books ever
>> share the same title **snort.**
>
> dej,
>
> I don't often disagree with you, but ISBNs are easily recognisable  
> by issuer - ie country. As you point out separately a littel bit of  
> thought and care would have offered the full necessary instructions  
> to the software writer - who is not expected to be a copyright expert.
>

I don't understand what your disagreement is. Someone said "they  
should be able to compare ISBNs" but a foreign ISBN wouldn't be the  
same as the American ISBN for the same work, so comparing them would  
be of no use whatsoever. You can't compare titles because different  
books share the same title. You could, theoretically compare content,  
but that's draconian... Can it be assumed that ALL ebooks with  
Australian ISBNs can't be sold in the US? Because if it's not a good  
assumptions simply filtering for the country of origin of an ISBN  
isn't a good algorithm.

With PRINT books, there is no need to worry about where you can sell a  
book. I, a retailer, import and sell a book published in Italy. It's a  
pain, but it was necessary because the Italian publisher wouldn't  
release the US rights so it could be printed here.

I know about software an software design and this is EXACTLY the kind  
of mistake made when someone used to one facet of an industry develops  
software intended for another part of the industry... or tries to  
scale software for an international market that was never developed  
for such a market.

> A paper book, once printed/published
>> in a country, can be transported across national boundaries and sold
>> in another country without there being any question of copyright
>> infringement. But can software? A sticker situation!
>
> And there's the real question mark. ;-) The publisher is licensed to  
> do certain things; that may or may not include rights to sell in any  
> particular market, whether country, format or niche.


Exactly.

dej

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