The Librum Frequently Asked Questions / Blog Page.
Have a comment for the mail bag? Send us an email to librum at librum dot us.
We reserve the right to edit to fit our format.
| What is the Librum? |
| An old order Mennonite library, where the crafts involved in book
restoration are taught. What is on the web site are 'class' and 'individual'
school projects done by students learning the various forms of electronic and
photographic restoration. Some of these are offered here, online, to help keep
our doors open. |
| I have a book I think you would like. Do you have a procedure to purchase my book? |
| We have purchased books in the past. Let us have more detail, and perhaps... |
| Why E-Books? Why not just a site backup? |
| Due to past experience, this is no longer done. If one
will search the web, you can find three 'customers' who received such, put it online.
In other words, theft of content. |
| I have XXX operating system, and I can not run your ebooks. What are my options? |
| The adoption of the FA Pro II software is intended to address this. We are not aware of any system that can not run either PC 'exe' or MAC 'app' software natively or by running emulation software. But, to add one more incentive, REGISTERED versions do not have the works encrypted. Heavily watermarked to discourage theft, but not encrypted. To recap: Adoption of the FA Pro II system: 1. Replaces the 'exe' extension self extracting archive files with 'zip'. Many users had issues with 'exe', even though we are scrupulous with viral and spyware issues. 2. Macintosh users can now use the works, with the enclosed viewer software 3. While the 'zip' archives are larger than their 'exe' predecessors, they run faster for our PC users. 4. For those who need the 'raw' material, it is in the REGISTERED zip archive, abet heavily watermarked (to deter commercial theft.) |
| From the Mail Bag: "... Why do you not use Adobe? This would give you the multiplatform you want, and there is so much out there! ..." PDF/Adobe failed the 'wrapper' test in federal court. The 'wrapper' test comes from the old shrink wrap law debacle of some years past. Basically, the 'wrapper' (called 'encapsulation' in the legal arguments) must be secure enough that the would be pirate must make a concerted effort to break out the content. PDF, even with two level security, is so easy and cheap to break out that it could not meet the 'concerted' portion of the ruling. There are, for less than $20, on the internet, PDF 'crackers' that will beat anything out there. Another issue, the original issue for us, is that there is a way to cross-link into a pdf, even a secure pdf, over the internet, and display the content in a frame, giving the impression that the content was local to the displaying website. |
| From the Mail Bag: ...I have noticed that some of your works have the University of Californiastamps. But you are on the other coast. ... We did a lot of the original digitization, and still do, for the InternetArchive, the Microsoft project, Gutenburg, etc. Quite a bit of the materialon those sites was done by us in the LOCeR era. |
| It has been a long time coming, but we are nearly finished with theconversion from previous softwares to the newer FlipAlbum Pro II. Thisconversion was driven by several considerations: 1) Removal of 'exe' format files. The exe format was shied away from by alot of would be users, as exe, as 'executeable' was deemed to be a viral risk. 2) Adoption of 'zip' format files. Is there not an operating system thatsupports zip? 3) Adoption of a Apple friendlier viewer interface (in each archive). 4) The ability to offer limited use versions, with full encryption of contentwas much strengthened. At the same time we can offer 'full' versions, withfull 'unlock' of the content for folks who need it and have purchased such. 5) The new software is friendlier to the various linux/unix hosted Windowsemulators. Not all work, but more do. We do not have a list of these, butgive it a try, if you have such. |
| From the Mail Bag: " ...curious as to your response to the recent eBay sweeping of content pirates. We know you had trouble there..." Our reaction is mixed. While we are happy eBay is being cracked down on for it's blind eye attitude towards copyright infringements, we are not happy that eBay used us as a 'good example'. This made us a target. So much so that we may well be leaving eBay for good. We are happy that the VeRO program was shown to be the 'inside clique joke' that it is, we are not happy that instead of being retroed and given some 'teeth', it apparently is going to be allowedto fade away. S.M. |
| From the Mail Bag: "I love the works, but how do I access the source files?" That depends on what you are working with. If you are working with a V6 or V8, (DEMO editions): The source is encrypted, you can see the presence of the source files, but they are encrypted with a dynamic key. If you are working with a V7 (EXE Registered editions): Open the ebook.Right click and select information. The path to the sources is shown.Leave the ebook open, and in another window, drill to the path given.Note: When you close the ebook, the temporary directory 'selfdestructs'. If you are working with a V9 (ZIP Registered editions): Simply open the zip and drill down to the 'Album' directory. If you are working from a disk: Simply 'explore' the disk and drill down to the 'Album' directory. |
| Added: Scientific American Reference Book 1914. A restoration from fiche.The index is not going to be OCRed, unless we find someone who is willing to handtype it in. DVD#13v9 updated to DVD#13v9a with Scientific American Reference Book. |
| From the Mail Bag: "... I know you work with the Copyright Office constantly, what are the casesconcerning taking old copyright free materials and reworking them as you do?..." They are subject to change. And they are constantly changing.It is getting to the point to where there isno 'copyright free' anymore. Today, there is only one way to verify copyright free, to visit the 'nativeregistrar' in your country. Physically visit. After jumping through a lot ofhoops and spending a lot of money, you can get a 'certificate of reasonableinvestigation', which is only good in your native country. But what if thework is registered elsewhere? Your native country really has no way to checkeverybody, but should the foreign copyright holder bring suit, you are on yourown. Generally speaking the 'certificate' is enough to protect you from beingfinancially suited, but you still lose your hard earned (and paid) rights. Today, for a United States entity, the only real protection is to use the'compilation' copyright sections of our copyright law, in conjunction with the'wrapper' sub clauses. This type of registration shows respect to any otherholder of any portion, while still protecting your rights. We would advise anyone to not get into this field unless you already have acopyright lawyer on retainer, who visits the Library of Congress on a regularbasis. You may get away with it, being 'small fry', but... #1: Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. ruled that exact photographic copies of public domain images, to include scanned book pages, could not be protected by copyright because the copies lack originality. Even if accurate reproductions require a great deal of skill, experience and effort, the key element for copyrightability under U.S. law is that copyrighted material must show sufficient originality. #2: Eastern America Trio Products v. Tang Electronic Corp ruled that there is "very broad scope for copyright in photographs, encompassing almost any photograph that reflects more than 'slavish copying'." "Mere digitizing of Public Domain works is not grounds for granting of subsequent copyright." #3: Feist v. Rural ruled that difficulty of labor or expense of reproduction is not a consideration for and in copyrightability. Simply scanning and or re-typing does not confer a new copyright as the fundamental material is still the same as original. #4: Library of Congress v. Adobe, Microsoft & The Internet Archive ruled that while restoration did not confer new copyright, costs of restoration may be recouped by sale of said materials, but once these costs are recouped, the work becomes public domain, despite any 'wrapping' such as ebook software involved. To repeat an earlier 'standard disclaimer' we used to use:"Any image or document inadvertently included here that is not copyright free, which unlikely, would fall under fair use as they do not encompass the majority of the material here and are freely available on the internet with no copyright restrictions." S.M. |
Major movements. We have lost our funding for the web hosting. Fortunately, the folks at Everything-diy.com came to the rescue. We hope this combination of like minded folks brings new and better resources to you, our users. Looks like we will be dropping OLA. Back to PayPal. (Sorry!) |