Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Kansas
I've been selling public domain books as PDF files that I put on CDs. I sell them on eBay and a website. I received an email 2 days ago from someone threatening a lawsuit if I didn't stop selling the files, which he says are copyrighted. All of the books I'm selling were originally printed before the year 1900. Lots of them were printed in the 1500’s and 1600's! All of the books are in their original form with no new additions. He says that he made additions to the books, but there are none.
I bought the public domain files through his company (which is located in Alberta, CA), and made my own CDs using the information. Should I not be able to sell them if the information is in the public domain?
These works are all clearly in the public domain. I'm mainly concerned about the costs and time associated with a potential lawsuit. Should I ignore his lawsuit threats?
This is the 1st email I received from him:
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Dear *****:
I've seen on the web (at eBay and at *****.com) that you're
offering pirated copies of our CDs (and the
files they contain) in contravention of existing copyright laws.
I'd like to speak with you about this in the hope of helping you
avoid some very serious charges.
Please send me your phone number so I may call you, or call me
at ***-***-**** (and leave your phone number, if I'm
not available), so we may discuss this matter.
If you don't contact me you'll force me to move ahead in defending our
copyrights and having you prosecuted in regard to your illegal
activity.
One other large company (which is on the New York Stock Exchange), as
well as various individuals who hold copyrights to some of the PDFs
and MP3s on our CDs (from whom we have obtained written permission to
use their works), eBay, PayPal and others are also likely to be in
contact you regarding this matter, if we're unable to sort this out
over the phone.
I look forward to hearing from you ASAP with the hope that we can
resolve this outside the courts.
***********************
This is my first response:
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Dear *****,

I'm not selling your CDs. I'm only offering public domain books that were originally published before 1900. I'm not offering anything that is contemporary or copyrighted, nor am I offering any of your books or MP3s.

This is from
Certain Unpublished, Unregistered Works Enter Public Domain
Certain works that were neither published nor registered for copyright as of Jan. 1, 1978, entered the public domain on Jan. 1, 2003, unless the works were published on or before Dec. 31, 2002.
Under the 1909 Copyright Act, works that were neither published nor registered did not enjoy statutory protection, although they were protected under common law in perpetuity as long as they remained unpublished and unregistered. But under section 303 of the 1976 Copyright Act, works that were created but neither published nor registered in the Copyright Office before Jan. 1, 1978, lost their common law protection and acquired a statutory term of protection that was the life of the author plus 50 years, amended in 1998 to life plus 70 years.
As a result of the 1976 Copyright Act, any of the works in question whose author had died over 50 years prior to 1978 would have entered the public domain after Dec. 31, 1977. To provide a reasonable term of copyright protection for these works, and in light of the fact that these works had enjoyed perpetual protection under common law, Congress extended their term by at least 25 more years. Congress also encouraged publication by providing an additional 25 more years, extended in 1998 to 45 more years, of protection if the work was published on or before Dec. 31, 2002.
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Then I sent him this email:
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If you see anything listed on my webpages that are not in the public domain, please let me know and it will be promptly removed.
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This is his response:
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I'm well aware of the information below and you are actually in
violation of this particular law in regard to almost every file on
our CDs (including the files you allege are in the public domain),
but you don't seem to know why. If you call me
or send me your phone number so I can call you, I'll
tell you some of the reasons why what you are doing is illegal.
There are also various other areas of copyright law, which you seem
not to be aware of, which apply to your case and which you are also
violating (as there is much more to copyright law than the paragraph
below). You should read through the complete statute sometime, though
I doubt that you would be able to spot the other areas of these
statutes that you are violating, without a highly trained lawyer. In
fact, I'd suggest you talk to the best copyright lawyer you can find
and discuss with him what you are doing (and expect to pay $300+/hour
for his services, at a minimum, if he's an expert in this area).
Also show him some of the CDs you've made from our files and get his
opinion on the matter. If he is any good at his job he'll be able
to show you from, various areas of the copyright laws, how you've
left yourself open to lawsuits.
For example, it makes no difference whether or not you're selling or
given away pirated files, you're still breaking the law, and there's
much case law to back this up already, including some highly
publicized cases.
I've already gone through all of this with one of the best copyright
lawyers in the nation and you have placed yourself in a dangerous
position on many fronts in regard to the law. Unfortunately for you,
your lack of knowledge in this area is about to get you into a lot of
trouble and cost you a lot of money and possibly other assets as well.
You've been warned and if, as previously requested, you don't
contact me by phone or send your phone number (so we can talk),
you will
force me to move ahead in defending our copyrights and having you
prosecuted in regard to your illegal activities. Others are also
likely to do the same and you should plan to spend significant funds
and time, in the future, in the court system, if you don't remove
our CD collection (which have various copyright claims attached to
them) from your offer.
By the way, do you attend a church and if so, which one is it? If you
really think you are doing what is right you should have no problem
giving me this information, or getting in touch with me via phone,
for that matter. You may not see it now (and it may be too late when
you actually recognize this), but I really am trying to help you
avoid some very serious charges. In fact, one of the lawyers I've
already spoken with suggested that I immediately move forward with
our case against you and was very surprised that I would try to
contact you directly to work this out before taking further action on
the legal front.
I really am trying to help you avoid a lot of problems in the future
(and make this much easier on both of us), so give me a call
or send me your phone number.
***********************************
Then he sent this letter:
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As noted in my previous email, almost every file you are
offering contains contemporary work, by our company
(which can't be removed from the files), which is clearly under
copyright, as this work was added to these files in the year 2000 and
after. This is even marked on the files, whether you have
found these notices or not, at this point. This part will be a slam
dunk in court, based on the dates given in the information you
provided in your last email (and you will not be able to plead that
you were ignorant about how this portion of the copyright law works
-- which won't look good when you get sentenced).
Another section of the copyright statutes applies to each and every
file on our CDs, and this will also come out in the courts.
If you get in touch with me via phone I will provide you with the
specifics in just these two areas (which would be obvious to any well
trained copyright lawyer anyway, in my opinion), though the cases
brought against you won't necessarily be limited to just these two
particulars.
You clearly don't know what you are up against and if we speak on
the phone I may be able to help you avoid a number
of very serious problems before they get to the point where there
will be no turning back.
Regards,
Dr. *****

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Those are all of the emails that have been sent so far. I have not called him. I looked through the files and there is nothing in them that is contemporary. What should I do?
Answer:
Hire an Atty