This could be a tough thing to do for some things. There was a guy that tried to locate me for 18 months to get permission to port one of my old video games. I accidentally stumbled on his attempts when I was googling on something that was only barely related.
Seems like there could be a business opportunity for someone to establish a central market of copyrighted works that are out of print/publishing that can be easily paid for/downloaded/modified for a small fee. Company and author would split the fees. Sure people could pirate, but you would get some percentage of people that don’t want to pirate.
Just this week I scanned over 200 pages of a paperback book, last printed in 1990, of which the used purchasing price on Amazon.com exceeds $100/copy… and “new” copies are even more expensive.
Seeing this thread, I did a quick search on the title of the book… only to find, online, two PDF’s (one of them on LinkedIn) of the very same book.
In case anybody cares, the author is dead (20 years gone), the ghost-writer is also dead (24 years gone), and the publishing house is kaput (23 years gone.)
If it’s a paperback, and the spine is intact, it’s fixable with some not-terribly-expensive glue, an X-acto knife (or pen knife), and some plastic clamps that cost a few dollars. I worked in a used bookstore for a little while (no big deal-- I worked three hours a week while the owner took his dinner break, and I got book credit, but I did learn how to fix books).
You need the hobby glue that looks like Elmer’s glue, but is less brittle when it dries, and three plastic clamps. Take out all the pages, and use the X-acto knife to scrape off all the old glue. Put a thin but solid layer of glue in the spine of the cover. Gather all the pages and tap them against a hard surface on all side to get them even. Put them in the cover, and put it against a hard surface, and tap it down on all directions again, starting with the back (spine). And then press your thumb on the spine and rub it up and own a couple of times. Clamp at top bottom and middle. Leave for 24 hours, or however long the bottle says it takes the glue to dry, plus a couple of hours, just to be on the safe side.
I’ve put several of my own books back together, and they come out really nicely. I’ve read through books I’ve fixed, and they hold together perfectly.
For personal use, if it’s out of print them it’s fair game for photocopying.
Just another side of the issue I would like to put forth and see how it goes…
You may be affecting a secondary market and diminishing the value of holding a legit copy of the work. The value of these works held in private collections is protected by the original copyright holder in that only the holder of the copyright has the authority to release additional copies. This gives a certain level of protection of the value of these works.
Not that the author/publisher (holder of the copyright), necessarily wants to hold up the value of the second hand market, but it is their right to do so, or not - it is their decision to make. The OP proposes bypassing this and deciding that they should make themselves a copy.
I’m not too sure I agree with your argument there, kanicbird. To use a common example, people who collect rare editions of books understand that the reason they are valuable is not necessarily because of the contents but because of unreproducable conditions - author’s signatures, first editions, historical significance of that specific book, etc, conditions that have little to do with copyright.
For example, make all the copies you want, but that won’t diminish the value of an original Gutenberg Bible. The existence of later printings of Uncle Tom’s Cabin does not affect the value of the solitary copy that’s signed by Harriet Beecher Stowe and dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.
Now whether or not the existence of PDF copies of the book I copied this week diminishes the market valuation of those $100+ copies on Amazon.com… that, yes, is obviously true. However, the existence of the copies on the internet is also another market signifying event, one that is saying “There’s a demand for this book, but not at the $100+ level.”
Interesting discussion points - thanks!!
I just looked up one of the books again - and per Wikipedia the two were slated for re-release - but Wikipedia states the publisher has gone out of business. Further digging suggests the publisher is actually the author’s company; I tracked down contact info and just sent a message asking about it. We’ll see how THAT goes.
The other book, the author actually passed away about 8 years ago. If I understand US copyright law, that means I just have to wait another 60 or so years before it’s in the public domain.