The Brooklyn bookshop saving out-of-print sci-fi, one e-book at a time

[n2doc]

by Carren Jao, wired.co.uk - Sept 2 2012, 4:00pm EDT

With its dramatic cover art and fantastical story plots, science fiction dared readers to dream of amazing possible futures filled with aliens, robots, and all sorts of gadgetry. Now, ironically, some of the earliest books of the genre find themselves precariously near extinction, never to make it to the future they describe. Until Singularity & Co came onto the scene, that is.

Lawyer Ash Kalb, musician-anthropologist Cici James, stylist-writer Jamil V Moen, and former Gawker media community manager Kaila Hale-Stern are the intrepid crew behind the Brooklyn-based bookshop. Each month, Singularity & Co—with the help of its community—chooses one great out-of-print or obscure science fiction novel, tracks down the copyright holders and makes that work available in DRM-free PDF, Epub, and Mobi format for subscribers.

Founded in April, after a massively successful Kickstarter campaign that earned them 350 percent of their $15,000 (£9,500) goal and kudos from authors like Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow and Ken McLeod, Singularity & Co hasn't always had the easiest time unraveling vintage sci-fi's copyright issues. "We knew it would be difficult to track down the legal status of the books, but it's simply much harder than we though it would be," said James.

Books get lost along the way for a variety of reasons. There could be no perceived demand for it, publication rights become muddled, or the books are simply forgotten. Sometimes, things get political. "It's really sad because a lot of really great books get lost not because nobody wants them but because people with lots of money who claim they have the rights are stopping people who have the rights from actually doing things. We hope to help these people down the road," said Kalb, the lawyer of the group, who takes charge of helping authors and author estates untangle the copyright mess.

more
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/the-brooklyn-bookshop-saving-out-of-print-sci-fi-one-e-book-at-a-time/

[SheilaT]

1. I uncerstand that there's a huge amount of old s-f out there

that currently cannot be reprinted because of copyright issues. Authors die, not leaving a designated literary heir, or does, and that heir dies without doing the same.

I believe it's even more complicated with our current copyright laws which basically keeps everything under copyright protection until the sun cools.

[AtheistCrusader]

2. If you know where to look

they get converted to ebooks anyway.

[SheilaT]

8. As a writer myself,

I do try avoid pirated stuff.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. From dead authors more than 75 years old?

I fully expect people to be able to make a living, certainly authors as well. But our copyright laws could use a makeover.

[SheilaT]

12. You are absolutely right.

If I'm not mistaken, our current copyright laws owe a lot to Disney, which is why it's something like the life of the author plus 75 years.

There is a lot to be said about things passing in to the public domain. Unfortunately, not much is going to pass into the public donain under the current laws.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. Lovecraft even did sci-fi. He had one short story of an astronaut stuck in an invisible maze.

[n2doc]

4. I remember that one

It was pretty good. But then I love HPL

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. "But then I love HPL"

If you have the patience to wade through it. The language can be a little thick at times.

If you get right down to it "At The Mountains Of Madness" was sci-fi too since it was about space aliens building cities at the time of the dinosaurs using another species that were basically like "The Blob".

[n2doc]

6. He has his own style, that is for sure.

I started reading his books when I was 10. Went through everything I could find. Re-reading some, yes, he gets repetitious and too thick with the adjectives and adverbs. One cannot discount his intensity, though, and the vision of the world that he brought to his readers. Not too many writers have that gift.

Agree on AtMoM..I re-read that one recently and it still is a good ride.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. "Agree on AtMoM..I re-read that one recently and it still is a good ride."

I think it inspired "The Thing".

[bl968]

10. Dormancy clause for copyright law

That's why we need a dormancy clause added to copyright law similar to trademark law. If the work is not actively sold/marketed for a period of two years the copyright reverts to the public domain.

[SheilaT]

13. Two years is far too short a time, especially for a living

author. In fact, that short a time would give publishing houses a very strong incentive not to actively sell or market something just to let it go into the public domain. Authors complain as it is about how publishing houses screw them over in regards to paying royalties in a timely manner.

Lifetime of the author plus a reasonable length of time, perhaps ten years, would be better.

I've had some things published a lot more than two years ago, and if someone wanted to reprint them I sure as heck should get the money, rather than those stories to be already in the public domain.

[Tikki]

11. The "Greenwich Village Trilogy" is still out there in rare or hard to find...

Would so be worth it to capture these three books and reissue.
"The ButterfLy Kid" ..Chester Anderson
"The Unicorn Girl" ..Michael Kurland
"The Probability Pad" ..T. A. Waters

From the late sixties...

Tikki