Wednesday, October 15, 2014

What the Supreme Court Didn't Say About eBooks

Dear Rich: I recently received a takedown notice for posting free eBooks. Why do publishers still hassle people now that the Supreme Court has said it's okay to digitize and scan books? Perhaps it occurred in a parallel universe ... but we don't find any caselaw from the Supreme Court that states it's okay to scan and distribute eBooks. Are you referring to this case in which a Court of Appeals held that it was fair use to digitize books for purposes of creating a database? That database was used for keyword searching; users could not read the books.
Bottom Line Dept. It would be difficult to justify the unauthorized scanning and distribution of whole eBooks as a fair use (unless for certain disabled uses) and we suggest that you obey the requests made by publishers lest you risk an assessment of damages based on willful infringement.

No comments: