legal to scan out of print book and resell as pdf?

[schnarkle]

I have a geneaology book that is long out of print, yet is highly desired by those with that surname.

My question is can I legally sell this as a pdf ebook, not for the book itself but for the service of scanning every page and cleaning it up to distribute on different media?

I'm guessing no, but with it being out of print and of VERY limited interest could be gray area??

thanks

 

[NickDanger]

In print or out of print is irrelevant - the issue is copyrighted and unexpired or not. The bible is "in print", but it's not protected.

 

[schlik1]

I think after a certain amount of time (78 years I believe) a book becomes public domain.

I ran across an article on this subject not to long ago but I'm too lazy to try to find it again.
I would google copyright laws and see what you can do.

 

[Napoleon]

Some old books are free on Amazon's KINDLE and something called STANZA that I put on my iPod Touch (~iPhone).

But as far as copying books...

Here in Buenos Aires, most students don't buy text books. They go to a printing company and buy a Xeroxed copy of the book. It is absolutely standard practice to steal in this manner and the entire university world is in on it. Just crazy.

 

[Creed]

In reply to:

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[Napoleon]

Yep, but a 300 page textbook can be bought for between AR$30 & AR$60, depending how much they charge per page. Sometimes you can get as low as AR$0.10 per side if it is double-sided, but those places tend to be an extra block or two away from the closer copying places. (AR$... is Argentine pesos.)

A rough equivalent textbook, if bought new in the States would cost ~US$80-US$120. That's AR$296 to AR$444. And one of their pesos can buy in Argentina about what one US dollar buys in the States. (Of course, it depends on the item.) And students generally have MUCH less money than they do in the States.

 

[Fievel121]

First, what is the copyright date (the last one, located on the back side of the title page)

 

[GHoward]

Try contacting the publisher?

 

[schnarkle]

Copyright 1975

 

[schnarkle]

The publisher is the author who would be in his 90's by my calculations. If he is still around.

 

[Fievel121]

If it's self published, you might be in luck. Just contact the author (or his decendence, I assume if you like the book so much, it wouldn't be hard for you to figure out who they are) and tell them to give you permission and you'll give them royalties. I've done this many, many times with music (print) and its worked great for both parties.