Should large amounts of printed (or Nook-Kindle)
book text be available on line through regular websites?
In effect, they often are, because of Google Book
Search, and sneak preview features like Amazon’s “Look Inside”. Furthermore, authors, particularly with
personal non-fiction and with a lot of abstract or obscure content that they
suspect won’t sell a lot of traditional “copies”, may choose to make their
content available online for exposure, and hope to earn some revenue through
“honor systems”. In practice, this
technique can often work. It will be
permissible if the author has a non-exclusive contract with the publisher (or
totally self-publishes and owns his imprint).
There’s a little legal mousetrap, however, which may
never have ever been triggered. Web
publishing services and ISPs have Section 230 protection (so far) but book
publishers do not. Now, Amazon would
have it for a “look inside” passage. But
the original publisher, even if a different entity than the author, would
not. So a mischievous plaintiff, perhaps
claiming some kind of victimization, could find the passage online and sue the
publisher as well as the author, who will have signed a contractual clause
indemnifying the publisher against legal defense costs. (That clause exists for online services too
but it really practically is never used, because of Section 230 and DMCA safe
harbor.) Also, a copyright infringement
claim could be made against the publisher, and with a “printed“ book there is
no safe harbor. In a very few cases,
book stocks have been removed or destroyed after such incidents. However, I haven’t heard of an
indemnification suit against an author by a publisher in this circumstance
actually happening in real life.
A "victim troll" could look through websites or book searches and file such a suit without ever having "purchased" a copy of the media. But of course, one can say that the party might have found the book in a public library (yes, "It's free...") But the volume of books actually in most libraries (outside of the Library of Congress) is much smaller than what is on the web, and relatively few of those in public libraries are self-published. Be wary of what mouse you offer a free cookie to. It may want more than a glass of milk. (See Feb. 23, 2013).
If it ever happens, it would be a good one for “The
Legal Guys” on Saturdays on CNN.
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