Re: out of print but in copyright
- From: M Taylor <mctaylor@[redacted]>
- Subject: Re: out of print but in copyright
- Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 10:55:55 -0400 (AST)
On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, John J. Lee wrote:
> Does anyone know of any schemes for getting out of print books that are
> still in copyright distributed?
Contact the copyright holder (typically publisher), sometime the
author(s).
Ask if they have no near future plans to do another print run, or publish
an e-book, whether you could license non-exclusive the rights to reproduct
the book.
If the book is considered not profitable, and of purely academic interest,
I would suspect there is a slight chance.
I have managed once for the right to reproduct 1 copy per person and had
to pay about $10 per copy towards the publisher and royalities of an
out of print book, used as a textbook for an undergrad math course. (Would
of cost ~$100 in print I suspect) Side note: I don't recommend using
out-of-print textbooks as undergrad required texts; some books go
out-of-print because they are poor.
Getting it for free, is possible if the author is copyright holder. Some
authors will admit the book didn't make them rich, and may be willing to
at least have their books read (and referenced) more. Pray on their
vanity. :)