[Taxacom] Responses from BHL about Nabu Press, etc.

[Doug Yanega]

Just so people are updated, I heard back from 2 people at BHL, which 
appears to be one of the major sources Nabu and the other POD 
publishers are using as sources for copyrighted documents. They have 
agreed to let me distribute their responses:

>From: "Crowley, Bianca" <CrowleyB at si.edu>
>To: "dyanega at ucr.edu" <dyanega at ucr.edu>
>Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:44:22 -0400
>Subject: Biodiversity Heritage Library Feedback
>
>Dear Dr. Yanega,
>
>Thank you for bringing this very serious issue to our attention. I 
>apologize for the concern that this is causing you and your 
>colleagues. Please know that the BHL is as equally concerned and we 
>are in the process of issuing a cease infringement request of Nabu 
>Press through our lawyers with the Smithsonian Institution. As I get 
>further information, I will be in touch with you. Please do not 
>hesitate to contact me if you gather any additional information.
>
>Sincerely,
>Bianca Crowley
>
>Biodiversity Heritage Library Collections Coordinator
>Smithsonian Institution Libraries
>10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW
>Rm 2221 P.O. Box 37012 MRC 154
>Washington, DC 20013-7012
>202-633-2239 | crowleyb[at]si.edu | http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org

>From: "Kalfatovic, Martin" <KalfatovicM at si.edu>
>To: "'dyanega at ucr.edu'" <dyanega at ucr.edu>
>CC: "Crowley, Bianca" <CrowleyB at si.edu>
>Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:07:42 -0400
>Subject: Copyright infringement by print on demand publishers
>
>Dr. Yanega, Bianca Crowley will also be contacting you - if she 
>hasn't already - but I personally wanted to let you know we're 
>taking immediate action.
>
>-        We're reviewing all metadata to be certain there are no 
>extraneous codes that might be allowing these publishers to believe 
>these materials are rights free;
>-        We've directed our Smithsonian Office of General Counsel to 
>issue a cease and desist order as well as a takedown order to the 
>"publishers";
>-        Smithsonian Counsel is also working with staff at Amazon to 
>have these titles removed from Amazon ASAP (we've had a similar 
>problem with some Smithsonian publications and have a direct 
>connection to Amazon for this purpose)
>
>We'll continue to monitor the situation and try to ensure that this 
>does not happen again.
>
>Cordially,
>Martin Kalfatovic
>
>Associate Director, Digital Services Division | Program Director, 
>Biodiversity Heritage Library
>Smithsonian Institution Libraries
>10th Street & Constitution Ave., NW
>Room 24 Mz
>MRC 154 PO Box 37012
>Washington, DC 20013-7012
>email: <mailto:kalfatovicm at si.edu>kalfatovicm at si.edu
>tel: 202.633.1705

As an additional follow-up, it appears that there may indeed be 
problems with the metadata - so there is a very real possibility that 
this is a systemic problem, leading the POD publishers to NOT be 
aware that these are copyrighted works. That is, they may have been 
re-publishing copyrighted material without realizing it, because they 
were trusting the metadata and not actually examining each file to 
make sure the metadata were accurate. I would not say, however, that 
this should let them off the hook. I know at least a few of you have 
contacted Amazon (and, evidently, gotten polite but 
less-than-exemplary responses like I did, along the lines of "We'll 
remove items from the sale listing one at a time if we receive what 
looks like a legitimate complaint from an author or copyright 
holder"). I wrote back and told them that this is little more than 
playing "Whack-a-mole", and they need a policy that blacklists POD 
sellers guilty of even ONE case of copyright infringement. We need to 
exert pressure. Again, if you have not checked Amazon for POD 
versions of your works, or if you have found some but not alerted the 
copyright holder, I urge you to do so.

Sincerely,
-- 

Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314        skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82