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A question about books.

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Jimmy199

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA (Pennsylvania)

I had a very simple question about digital versions of books also known as an eBook. Most commonly they are in pdf format made to be viewed with a pdf reader such as Adobe Reader.

The way my website will operate is in theory an author of a digital version of a book will upload their book to my server solely in pdf format and without an access password and also make at least a 500-word description about their book. They MUST accept an agreement stating the book will be put in our open directory and that they are the legal author of the book or have permission to post it on our site. They also will have the option to have their book made into a torrent and posted on various torrent trackers. The author can lock out printing, etc but that is besides the point. Once the author has uploaded their book our moderator will check if its a legit book, has no viruses, and we are aloud to post this book on our website.

Once we verify the book we will approve the entry an we will post a direct download link to the pdf file. We will also make a torrent for this file and use external trackers such as torrent reactor, mininova, etc and host the torrent file on our server. The torrent feature will be the option of the author and is not mandatory.

Ok the legal stuff:
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The 500-word description will be non-copyrightable and available for anyone to copy. We will host eBooks that have no copyright to them OR state in the book it can be distributed freely. All other copyright books will only be posted with by the author and with their permission and their IP's recorded.

The question I need answered:
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What happens when Joe Schmo posts an eBook that he isn't the author of however he agreed that he IS the author. Who would get in trouble in this case? Us or the poster and what penalties would we face if we were found at fault? Lastly if you can help us think of a more safer method please let us know. All we want to do is offer the world access to the books they need without needing to goto a library and also saving the environment by using less trees.
 


The Occultist

Senior Member
For hosting the infringing material, you can be found liable. You may be able to pursue Joe in a breach of contract suit, but you can still find yourself paying damages as the host. You should look into DMCA and read up on Safe Harbor. Since you may be taking a risk here that could be quite costly financially, you should also sit down with an attorney versed in such law so that he may analyze all relevant facts/details and advise you accordingly.
 

Jimmy199

Junior Member
Alright thanks for the quick reply. What if I don't host the actual files on my server and only host the torrent or just a link to the file? Thanks!
 

The Occultist

Senior Member
To answer that question, I recommend you do research on p2p lawsuits, as well as the latest lawsuit against Pirate Bay (piratebay.org is a website that did not host infringing material but was merely a search engine that aided one in finding the torrents they were looking for, and they found themselves in the midst of quite the legal battle).
 

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