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Travis Fentiman

Puritan Board Sophomore
A quiet revolution is occuring: More and more new, copyrighted books in all fields of theology and Bible scholarship are being made available for free on the net.

Internet Archive, a major, online library, continues to legally put up 3,500 books a day, from 18 locations across the world, onto the net for free, through its online checkout program, to anyone who takes half a minute to sign up for a free acount.

Their mission is to provide “universal access to all knowledge”. They have the funding to do it, and are working on this full steam ahead.

No longer is ReformedBooksOnline.com limited to making available public domain works. I will be taking full advantage of this development; as a first-fruits I have updated our pages on Biblical Theology:


Enjoy and bless God.


“He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land,
even a land that floweth with milk and honey.”

Deut. 26:9​
 
Well done, Travis. I also heard about your upcoming mention in the Banner of Truth magazine and I'm looking forward to it!
 
I am currently reading Leon Morris's I believe in Revelation, which I got access to via one of Travis's links. Hence, most of my evening online time has been spent in the company of Leon and not with you guys. ;)
 
If these books are copyrighted, they aren't legally being uploaded. They violate copyright laws. Creative Commons does not trump copyright laws.

This activity is illegal, and honestly, I am discouraged to see it being posted here.
 
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If these books are copyrighted, they aren't legally being uploaded. They violate copyright laws. Creative Commons does not trump copyright laws.

This activity is illegal, and honestly, I am discouraged to see it being celebrated here.
Are you sure? First, I would be absolutely shocked if a website as massive as Archive.org did something illegal and got away with it for this long. Second, it's not as if they are uploading these books for download and keeps but, as Travis said, as part of a loan program. How is this any different than my local library that lends out eBooks? Finally, Travis said that "they have the funding for it," which implies, at least to me, that monetary deals have been reached with the publishers of these works.

I'm just not seeing how it is illegal. But you are in this business and no doubt know more than I. If it is illegal, then you are right to be disturbed.
 
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There is no such thing as 'free'. It sounds like someone is being denied royalties they should be earning.
 
Are you sure? First, I would be absolutely shocked if a website as massive as Archive.org did something illegal and got away with it for this long. Second, it's not as if they are uploading these books for download and keeps but, as Travis said, as part of a loan program. How is this any different than my local library that lends out eBooks? Finally, Travis said that "they have the funding for it," which implies, at least to me, that monetary deals have been reached with the publishers of these works.

I'm just not seeing how it is illegal. But you are in this business and no doubt know more than I. If it is illegal, then you are right to be disturbed.
I am positive. At this very moment, we are dealing with one of our author's books being uploaded to the Internet Archive without permission, which is illegal.
 
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If these books are copyrighted, they aren't legally being uploaded. They violate copyright laws. Creative Commons does not trump copyright laws.

This activity is illegal, and honestly, I am discouraged to see it being posted here.
Looks like he's linking to Archive. Are Archive's actions illegal?

Edit: nevermind. Guess it is...
 
If these books are copyrighted, they aren't legally being uploaded. They violate copyright laws. Creative Commons does not trump copyright laws.

This activity is illegal, and honestly, I am discouraged to see it being posted here.
I am positive. At this very moment, we are dealing with one of our author's books being uploaded to the Internet Archive without permission, which is illegal.

I have seen a few pirated copyrighted works uploaded by individuals to IA, illegally, under disinformation, that it was under a creative commons copyright, when it was not. However, that is the exception, and an issue of quality control for IA in allowing individuals in the community to upload items (which you can report, as I have before).

If there are any of such a kind linked on my website, please let me know, and I will take them down.

As far as the IA online check out program of copyrighted works, I believe it is fully ethically defensible, though I am not going to detail out those ethical arguments, or the status of the civil court issues here, at length.
 
Just a note for ninth commandment reasons (I am not saying that anyone is violating it here), but the Internet Archive does remove uploads that they deem to have been uploaded in contravention of copyright laws. Obviously, some things do still slip through the net, but they are not encouraging illegal activity on purpose.
 
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