Copyright and free ebooks

Put simply, Copyright is a form of protection supported by law: it gives an author the right to control how their material is used. Anything you wish to do with an ebook, other than read it, requires the author's written permission; via personal correspondence or a printed statement within the book. Copyright is automatic: it belongs to the author as soon as a work is created. There is no legal requirement to register, although an author may register their work voluntarily via the Copyright Office in the United States. Ebooks will usually have a Copyright Notice: the © copyright symbol alongside the author's name and the year the work was created. As a general rule, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

On obooko you will find three 'usage' types:

Standard Copyright ebooks are strictly protected works. You must not perform any actions, including copying, printing and distribution, without the author's written or printed consent (the author may have already granted certain terms in a statement within a book.) PDF ebooks downloaded from obooko are cleared for personal printing if this option has been enabled in the file. The sale of Copyright works in any form is illegal.

Creative Commons licensed ebooks are more accommodating. They are published under a specific licence which is a set of conditions which may allow you to copy, share, remix and make derivative works. However, some of the author's legal rights as Copyright holder still apply and you must read and abide by the terms of the actual Creative Commons licence appearing inside each work.

Public Domain books have no restrictions. If no laws establish proprietary rights over a work to restrict its use by the public at large; typically when Copyright has lapsed or has deliberately been waived by the author, it is deemed to be in the Public Domain. Please familiarise yourself with Copyright laws in your country.

More about Copyright:

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works-1886, established that all literary works are considered to be copyright-protected regardless of being asserted or declared as they are automatically in force at creation. Although signed by the U.K. in 1887, this was not fully implemented until the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988. The U.S. signed the convention in 1989 and changed its Copyright law accordingly.

To clarify: whenever you write an original work it is automatically protected by Copyright regardless of whether you have declared this in the work. However, we advise you mark work with a Copyright notice (© symbol, your name and year of creation,) to indicate the term of protection: currently, in the U.K. and U.S. this is 70 years after the death of the author or surviving co-author.

To do anything with an author's work other than read it, you need the author's written permission to do so; otherwise, you commit an illegal act. In general, you must not copy or reproduce; alter; transmit; distribute free or for sale; any work without written permission from the Copyright holder.

The scope of Copyright laws may be different where you live so please check the website of the relevant governing body for your country. United States citizens should visit the United States Copyright Office. If you are not sure who handles Copyright in your country, visit the UNESCO website for more information.

Obooko is based in the United Kingdom and as such is governed by UK law. Here is a summary, for guidance only, issued by The Intellectual Property Office:

Automatic right: There is no official registration system for copyright in the United Kingdom (UK) and most other parts of the world. There are no forms to fill in and no fees to pay to get copyright protection.

So long as you have created and fixed, for example in writing, an original work that qualifies for copyright protection, that is it falls into one of the categories of material protected by copyright, you will have copyright protection without having to do anything to establish this. It is a requirement of various international conventions on copyright that copyright should be automatic with no need to register.

To help protect your copyright work, it is advisable to mark it with the © symbol, the name of the copyright owner and the year in which the work was created. Although this is not essential, it will let others know when the term of protection started and it should then be possible to calculate whether it has ended or not. It will also indicate who the owner was at that time in case it is then necessary to approach them should you need to ask permission to use the work.

Additionally, a creator could send himself or herself a copy by special delivery post (which gives a clear date stamp on the envelope), leaving the envelope unopened on its return (ensuring you also know what is inside each envelope in case you do this more than once). Alternatively you could lodge your work with a bank or solicitor. It is important to note, that this does not prove that a work is original or created by you. But it may be useful to be able to show the court that the work was in your possession at a particular date.

Copyright can protect:
Literary works, including novels, instruction manuals, computer programs, song lyrics, newspaper articles and some types of database
Dramatic works, including dance or mime
Musical works
Artistic works, including paintings, engravings, photographs, sculptures, collages, architecture, technical drawings, diagrams, maps and logos
Layouts or typographical arrangements used to publish a work, for a book for instance
Recordings of a work, including sound and film
Broadcasts of a work

You should only copy or use a work protected by copyright with the copyright owner's permission.