Blackout on htmlcomics.com

[mschmidt]

My county's site explicitly says it's "powered by Overdrive."

 

Same here.

 

It appears that they have a finite number of "copies" that can be checked out at one time. I wonder if htmlcomics had some sort of "checkout" system that limited the number of users allowed to view materials at any one time, it would have made a difference.

 

 

It wouldn't.

 

Your library is allowed to put things online (within a closed DRM-ified system) because they have gotten permission from the copyright-holder to do so. The restrictions may differ from system to system (and from book to book), but in the end all that matters is that there's a contract in place between the library & the copyright-holder that gives the library the right to do this.

 

Htmlcomics.com has no such contract, so it's irrelevant whether they restricted access to the comic books or not. The second somebody other than the owner of a particular comic book read this book on the site, they were in breach of copyright law.

[mschmidt]

My county's site explicitly says it's "powered by Overdrive."

 

Same here.

 

It appears that they have a finite number of "copies" that can be checked out at one time. I wonder if htmlcomics had some sort of "checkout" system that limited the number of users allowed to view materials at any one time, it would have made a difference.

 

 

If they owned at least one copy of each book they were "checking out," it would probably go a long way toward defending their actions.

 

No.

 

If you go to Best Buy and buy a CD, you do not have the right to make copies of that CD and share it with your friends. Copyright law is 100% clear on this.

[fantastic_four]

I've been browsing what libraries are making available...some (but not many) recent, copyrighted titles are actually available in MP3 format, which I know has no protection built into it. A guy I work with is downloading the audiobook of Charlie Wilson's War as I write this.

 

I wonder if the publishers ask the author if they're willing to make the book freely distributable? Maybe the author of Charlie Wilson's War figures he's made enough money from the movie license so he decided to open the printed book up to the world?

[stevescu1]

Libraries pay overdrive for access, and overdrive pays the publishers. It's the same as proquest or any of the other number of things libraries hace access too.

 

http://www.overdrive.com/products/library.asp

[scottish]

I've been browsing what libraries are making available...some (but not many) recent, copyrighted titles are actually available in MP3 format, which I know has no protection built into it. A guy I work with is downloading the audiobook of Charlie Wilson's War as I write this.

 

I wonder if the publishers ask the author if they're willing to make the book freely distributable? Maybe the author of Charlie Wilson's War figures he's made enough money from the movie license so he decided to open the printed book up to the world?

 

Sorry I had to step out for a bit. Seems your question has been answered. My wife is the library fiend. I prefer to OWN the books I like to read.

 

She has read some recent releases digitally, but I have no idea which titles.

[stevescu1]

Looks like all the publishers did team up and got the FBI involved and his computers were raided. http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/05/publishers-get-together-to-beat-down-pirates/

 

This guy's life is going to be ruined.

 

Of course he completely deserves it, not only for ripping off all these comic companies, but check out this older new story on the same guy.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/19/Tampabay/An_arrest__then_onlin.shtml

 

The guy is a real piece of work and deserves everything coming to him.

[Spider-Variant]

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!

 

A door slammed. The maid screamed.

 

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared at htmlcomics.com!

 

While millions of people were reading for free, the king lived

in luxury.

 

Meanwhile, on a small website in Tampa, a boy was

being served (by the FBI no less).

 

The end!

 

 

[Ares]

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!

 

A door slammed. The maid screamed.

 

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared at htmlcomics.com!

 

While millions of people were reading for free, the king lived

in luxury.

 

Meanwhile, on a small website in Tampa, a boy was

being served (by the FBI no less).

 

The end!

 

 

Not that small

[Spider-Variant]

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out!

 

A door slammed. The maid screamed.

 

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared at htmlcomics.com!

 

While millions of people were reading for free, the king lived

in luxury.

 

Meanwhile, on a small website in Tampa, a boy was

being served (by the FBI no less).

 

The end!

 

 

Not that small

 

Yeah, I was trying to remain faithful to the original story.

[mschmidt]

From Colleen Doran's blog:

http://adistantsoil.com/2010/05/05/pirate-website-raided-by-fbi/

 

When I very politely asked him to remove my comics from his website, he sent me a belligerent letter and threatened to lawyer me into oblivion:

 

“…we’ll see you in court and we’ll be the ones cashing your compensatory damages check.”

 

He bragged about how much he loved battling with lawyers…and about how much money he had.

 

Considering she's one of the nicest people in the business, this guy seems like a total scumbag.

[Ares]

From Colleen Doran's blog:

http://adistantsoil.com/2010/05/05/pirate-website-raided-by-fbi/

 

When I very politely asked him to remove my comics from his website, he sent me a belligerent letter and threatened to lawyer me into oblivion:

 

“…we’ll see you in court and we’ll be the ones cashing your compensatory damages check.”

 

He bragged about how much he loved battling with lawyers…and about how much money he had.

 

Considering she's one of the nicest people in the business, this guy seems like a total scumbag.

 

Read on about what he did to a cop