Out of curiosity, why did we move from lulu.com to CreateSpace? I remember you telling us about the move (but don't remember the reasons). I see that Lulu is also affiliated with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers. Maybe it's time to look at them again.
Have a great day.:) Patrick. On Wed, 2013-11-13 at 20:36 -0600, Kevin Godby wrote: > Hello, everyone. > > Yesterday, someone from CreateSpace's content validation request team > emailed me to ask for validation that we (I) own the copyright to the > Ubuntu manuals I've been publishing through CreateSpace. > > I assured her that we did own the copyright and, further, that the > books were CC-licensed and could be copied and printed by anyone. > > This evening, she wrote back the following: > > "We’ve reviewed the information you provided and have decided to block > this title from being sold through CreateSpace. The title closely > matches content that is freely available on the web and we are not > confident that you hold exclusive publishing rights. For example, > content from Wikipedia, creative commons content and content with > private label rights are not allowed since it disappoints our > customers to pay for content that can be found online for free. As a > result, we have suppressed this title and removed it from your sales > channels. > > "Please be advised that you must hold exclusive publishing rights for > titles that closely match content that is freely available on the web. > If your catalog continues to contain titles that fail to comply with > these conditions or do not meet our Content Guidelines, your account > may be terminated. > > "To learn more, please see our content guidelines at > https://www.createspace.com/Help/Rights/ContentGuidelines.jsp"; > > CreateSpace has now suppressed the French and Spanish manuals and so > they may be unavailable for purchasing. > > I wrote back to the CreateSpace representative, asserting that we hold > the copyright to the manuals and pointed out that their guidelines > (linked above) do not exclude Creative Commons materials from being > published through their site. I've included my full response to the > representative below. > > I will keep everyone posted on this issue as I learn more. I just > wanted to give everyone a heads-up in case they were wondering why > they couldn't purchase one of the manuals. > > If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks! > > > Here's the email I sent to the CreateSpace representative (Zarla): > > Hello, Zarla. > > On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 7:38 PM, CreateSpace Validation Request > <validation-requ...@createspace.com> wrote: > > We’ve reviewed the information you provided and have decided to block this > > title from being sold through CreateSpace. The title closely matches > > content that is freely available on the web and we are not confident that > > you hold exclusive publishing rights. For example, content from Wikipedia, > > creative commons content and content with private label rights are not > > allowed since it disappoints our customers to pay for content that can be > > found online for free. As a result, we have suppressed this title and > > removed it from your sales channels. > > Your response seems to be contrary to the guidelines you cite. The > guidelines state in part: "We will not accept content that is freely > available on the web *unless you are the copyright owner of that > content.*" (Emphasis mine.) My team is the copyright owner of the > content. We publish PDFs of the content on our website and also use > your service to provided printed and bound versions of the work for > those who do not wish to print the PDFs on their home printers. > > Your argument that you don't publish content that is otherwise freely > available on the web is undermined by the fact that your guidelines > acknowledge that you do publish public domain content: "We do accept > public domain content..." > > In conclusion, I contest your removal of our content and request that > it be made available again. > > Thank you. > > —Kevin Godby, The Ubuntu Manual Project > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual > Post to : ubuntu-manual@lists.launchpad.net > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual Post to : ubuntu-manual@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-manual More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
