Comments on: SFWA Accuses Teen Literacy of Copyright Violation

By: Idetrorce

Idetrorce — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:08:21 +0000

very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce

By: A Teachable Moment about Copyright from the SFWA

A Teachable Moment about Copyright from the SFWA — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:49:52 +0000

[...] SFWA Accuses Teen Literacy of Copyright Violation [...]

By: bill

bill — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:21:04 +0000

I think you’re exactly right, the SFWA is exactly wrong, and they ought to go to a very bad place for a very long time.

In other words: those bozos!

By: tom

tom — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:54:55 +0000

I suspect what happened here is just a more extreme example of a mistake the music & movie industries have made before as well: searching for a title of something that might be getting shared, and sending a DMCA take down notice when you find it, without realizing that it was a false positive because of a similar title or something (in your case, nothing more than a list of titles).

It’s really great that the SFWA President responded to you above (I imagine they’re not enjoying the publicity this has gotten). It’s reassuring that he seems genuinely surprised by this, insists it must have been a mistake (probably true), and offers an apology. He seems mistaken, however, in thinking it is at all relevant in telling *you* to disregard the notice, as that’s something that goes to the service provider (Scribd), and not you personally. So while that’s a nice thought, he needs to realize that you’re incapable of “disregard[ing] the notice”, and his organization needs to coordinate that with Scribd directly.

Anyway, good luck with all this, I hope the mistake is corrected for promptly. It sounds like you have (had?) a great list! =)

Tom

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:32:04 +0000

Michael: Thanks for your response. I appreciate you taking the time to look into this. The list does contain quite a few science fiction and fantasy titles, and you would be very welcome to link to it.

Phil and K8: Thanks for your comments and support.

By: Michael Capobianco

Michael Capobianco — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:50:30 +0000

I am checking into how this happened, but I can assure you that SFWA would not issue a DMCA notice over a list of recommended titles which did not in any way violate copyright. SFWA is trying to help scribd develop a policy that would do something about all the copyright violations that -are- posted there, and maybe what the other posters suggested is true, that your list somehow became inadvertently added. If so, I offer you my abject apology.

In any case, please disregard the DMCA notice; SFWA will do what it can to get scribd to restore your list. We would also like to link to it if it contains many science fiction and fantasy titles.

Michael Capobianco
President, SFWA

By: K8

K8 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:49:54 +0000

That’s ridiculous – how can you copyright a list? It’s got to be like Phil said, doesn’t it?

This litiginous nonsense makes me very sad.

By: Phil Lanuto

Phil Lanuto — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:01:00 +0000

I don’t think a list could constitute a copyright violation. I think the SFFWA is up-in-arms because of the other copyright infringements on Scribd and you were caught in the crossfire.

By: Free Literature for Your Classroom with Public Domain Texts

Free Literature for Your Classroom with Public Domain Texts — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:14:48 +0000

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