I just got recommended to www.feedbooks.com, and when I got there, I checked the Terms of Service, as is my habit.
I quote:
1. Scope of Application
(a) FeedBooks.com: FeedBooks.com (hereinafter also referred to as “The Website”) is a free book hosting website which enables users, after registering and opening an account, to download, store, share and comment on the electronic books proposed for reading. The books are available in different languages. The books are free from copyrights as they fall in the public domain. The users have the possibility to upload electronic books. Before they are posted on the Website, FeedBooks will determine whether the publication of the said book is authorized.
–emphasis added
Later in the same TOS:
4. Intellectual Property Rights
FeedBooks being registered in France, the content of the Website is subject to the French legislation on copyrights and other intellectual property rights. However, the electronic books offered for reading are free from copyrights as, in accordance with the legislation of France, the said books fall in the public domain.
–emphasis added
Not being familiar with the legislation of France, I can’t comment either on the root of their claim that the books fall in the public domain or on its veracity, but I would take these factors at face value. I would assume that anything listed there either is or becomes public domain work.
This is far more serious than simply allowing your work to get out there and acquire readers for you. If your story enters the public domain, you no longer have any control or authority over it at all. Anything you can imagine can be done to it. Anything. It can be republished, in a paid format, with someone somewhere making stacks of money off of it, and you will have no recourse.
If that’s what you want, go ahead and post your stories on Feedbooks, but if all you want is something more closely approximating the Creative Commons license, then I strongly advise that you find some other place to post.
For the record, everything on this site, including the stories and novellas that you can download for free, remain my copyright-protected intellectual property. You may pass them on, but you may not claim them, sell them, republish them, etc.
In the end, I decided not to register at Feedbooks after all.
I discussed Feedbooks as well over on the Podpeople a while ago and we took issue with that clause too.
This is why Indie authors must read the terms of service carefully before uploading up their work anywhere.
.-= Cheryl Anne Gardner ´s last blog .. =-.
Well, to be perfectly fair, I did receive a response on Twitter from Hadrien Gardeur (@Hadrien). According to his bio, M Gardeur is the founder of Feedbooks, and his replies were as follows:
http://twitter.com/Hadrien/status/14116775573
will answer to that post once I’m in front of a computer but this part of TOS is only relevant for the public domain section
http://twitter.com/Hadrien/status/14116834346
and copyright for authors is far better in France than in the US: it’s a natural right and no TOS could change anything
Having heard no more from M Gardeur, I cannot evaluate his arguments, but I would like to point out that a) copyright is a “natural right” in the US, too, as well as in many other countries, assuming that by “natural right” he means intellectual property is protected from creation, with no registration being required (although it is strongly advised by this blogger!), b) copyright on a particular piece certainly can be transferred, and c) I would assume that a TOS I have willingly entered into is one way such transferal can take place.
I’m not a lawyer, and this is certainly not legal advice, but it would seem to me that if something is posted on a site that says by being so posted, it has passed into the public domain, then the argument could be made that the author, by posting it, has willingly ceded the copyright on that piece.
Secondly, I’d like to point out that if one reasonably intelligent person (myself) can come to the conclusion by reading the TOS (as quoted above) that the stories posted there have passed into the public domain, then so will others. Some of those others will be authors who will decide not to participate, cutting Feedbooks’ market share, while others will be people who will assume that they can repost, republish, etc, the stories that they find there.
Unless and until I hear more from M Gardeur, I remain unconvinced, and my stories stay off of Feedbooks.
Always good to remember to read the terms of use and then decide for yourself whetehr it is going to work for you or not. Thanks for making us aware of this one.
.-= Cassandra Jade´s last blog ..Small Spaces and Long Drives =-.
I really would have liked to have heard back from M Gardeur, anyway. I was willing to believe I was wrong in my interpretation.