Our friends at SFF Audio have a nice summary of a discussion that comes up once in a while, ebayers selling LibriVox recordings:
I really like the attitude of the people over on LibriVox.org. In one thread on the LibriVox forums a first time poster makes note that ‘LibriVox titles are being sold on eBay for $’. Like that guy I too was quite shocked and a little dismayed when I found that out. Here’s me thinking:
These audiobooks are available for free and yet some people are actually SELLING them!?!?! How dare they!
But as Puffin1, a long time LibriVoxateer so sensibly points out…
“It’s okay. We [LibriVox] don’t mind. Everything we do is in the public domain. Thanks for your concern. Welcome to LibriVox. Have fun!”
How cool is that?
It really sums up the LibriVox attitude too. Another LibriVoxer, David Barnes (AKA earthcalling), pointed out that… ‘
the seller credits LibriVox … and is providing a service that LibriVox doesn’t provide – namely audiobooks on CD.’
Their whole attitude is positive and relaxed, their idea is “the more recordings are ‘out there’, the better!” As it turns out, it’s actually a very good thing that a lot of the sellers on eBay are selling these audiobooks. eBayers looking for audiobooks can discover LibriVox that way.
That’s exactly how I found this site — looking on eBay for audiobook mp3’s for my mp3 player. And I never purchased any on eBay.
Thanks for this site — it’s great!!
“It’s okay. We [LibriVox] don’t mind. Everything we do is in the public domain. Thanks for your concern. Welcome to LibriVox. Have fun!”
This is the right attitude!! It does benefit everyone IMHO for the reasons mentioned, and it is why this is a place I’d like to volunteer <3 <3
Me, I’m surprised that we don’t see MP3 players sold preloaded with 100 Great Works of Literature or somesuch.
I’m just wondering. If it’s really public domain, then that means I can take a LibriVox recording and claim that I did the recording! No rights reserved? Including moral rights? I think for these purposes, something just a bit less restrictive or simpler than the BSD license would be better. Any work that is substantially made up of a LibriVox recording (beyond the usual fair use proviso) could be covered by this license.
“If it’s really public domain, then that means I can take a LibriVox recording and claim that I did the recording!”
No, it doesn’t. For instance, all works from Shakespeare are in the Public Domain, yet you couldn’t take Macbeth and claim you wrote it.