Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
Would you please reconsider?
Thank you. I happen to be able to read German and would be happy to translate it for you.
I would like to preface my post with this: I'm not arguing with you because I particularly care about gaining information on the Ta 153, that is largely irrelevant to me in comparison to the precedent that you are attempting to establish: that photocopies of select excerpts of literature constitutes a violation of fair use. If this were true it would have a remarkable effect on this and other forums.
In this case, the purpose of its use is almost entirely for non-profit educational purposes, this is very clear. Additionally, if the poster added his own analysis to the excerpt, it would even more so constitute fair use.
Since the excerpt is from a work of non-fiction rather than fiction it is more likely to support a claim of fair use.
Since, I imagine, the amount of pages dedicated to the Ta 153 is very small in comparison to the rest of the book which covers a different aircraft, the Ta 152, it would most likely be in accordance with fair use in this regard as well. If the excerpt is even as much as 10 pages long (out of 208 pages) it would still be less than 5%(!) of the entire book. Additionally, since the excerpt deals with the Ta 153 and not the Ta 152, the argument that the "heart" of the book was copied would not be valid.
I dedicated space here to the expanded quote as it deals directly with your claim that posting the excerpt would violate fair use as it would lose the publisher revenue. As you can see, according to U.S. law it comes down to scale. I can assure you, neither I or most other people can afford to pay $70 USD for a book whose primary subject is not what I'm interested in. In fact, it is actually more likely that I and others would purchase a book if I were given a small sample to read. If I can see that an author possesses an excellent writing style, list of sources/footnotes, grasp of the facts, etc, I would be much more willing to buy the book. Similarly, it would be very difficult for a publisher to prove that the widespread excerpt of a subject that is not even the main focus of the work would cause substantial harm for the same reasons I listed above.
Publishers aren't stupid, they know just as well as everyone that they have to clearly prove a work violated Fair Use. If there's a significant risk that they would be unable to do so, for the reasons I have listed above, it would be highly unlikely for them to do so. I can only imagine the amount of images, copies, and quotations that have been posted in compliance of Fair Use on this forum for almost the last 20 years. Are you aware of anytime where a publisher or author "went after" this website or one of its posters for copyright infringement for a posting of a small excerpt?
And, assuming they only posted a small, irrelevant excerpt, you would perhaps likely lose the case, at least in the United States.
Don't get me wrong, I do agree with the sentiment (and the law) that all authors share about illegal books. I can only imagine the time, effort, and expense invested in writing and publishing your own book, only for it to be distributed illegally and read without you receiving any compensation.Thats a much nicer message than most people bother with, but I would still refer you to the "sticky" post on the announcements section of this forum.
Sadly this is a case of a few spoiling it for everyone, because (for example) my book will never be released as an e-book, (I`ve been asked by several people if it would be) because within 24h it will have the DRM removed and will be offerered for free download on some forum or other. I wish it were not so, but to deal with THAT issue, the law has to be pretty tight on it, which is silly on some levels, but it is still where we are at. Like it or not.
View attachment 590500
Thats a much nicer message than most people bother with, but I would still refer you to the "sticky" post on the announcements section of this forum.
Sadly this is a case of a few spoiling it for everyone, because (for example) my book will never be released as an e-book, (I`ve been asked by several people if it would be) because within 24h it will have the DRM removed and will be offerered for free download on some forum or other. I wish it were not so, but to deal with THAT issue, the law has to be pretty tight on it, which is silly on some levels, but it is still where we are at. Like it or not.
View attachment 590500
Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines- UMGC Library.
Sorry for getting back to you so late, I'll do a rough translation very soon.Yes please.
There's a big difference between posting a page or two vs entire chapters. This also leaves out the counterargument that posting a page could actually increase sales since people have a small sample and idea of what the work is, and would have more motivation to buy it. Keep in mind as the copyright claimant it is up to you to prove that sales were harmed. This is no easy task because saying that a single person did not buy a book because of the excerpt is not necessarily enough. Courts weigh the extent to which the damage was "widespread":
Because the whole point of this forum is educational; to share information with each other on extremely niche and hard to find topics. Much information is out of print, hard to find, and extremely expensive. Not everyone can afford to shell out $50-100 for a tidbit of information they could otherwise get from someone posting a paragraph-long excerpt from a book. This is one of the main reasons why Fair Use exists. Posting entire chapters or the whole book would of course not be legal and is not what I'm arguing for.
First of all, I would hope you would notify a transgressing member before you take any sort of legal action. Second, what do you consider a "section"? Would you sue someone for posting 2-3 sentences? In 30 years, would you really try to sue someone for posting a page of your book? I understand that you have very recently released your book and spent many thousands of dollars and hours and so it's a raw subject for you, but please do try to think of the underlying goal and motivations of it all.
You conveniently left out all the rest of the categories which DO support what I'm saying.
