Re:Project Gutenberg blocks access from Germany
by mcguire on Saturday March 03, 2018 @10:01PM
(#16513024)
The court decision in question, in part, says,
"The defendants are ordered, on penalty of an administrative fine of up to EUR 250,000.00 or, alternatively, imprisonment of up to 6 months, for each case of non- compliance, said imprisonment to be imposed on the second defendant, to cease and desist from making the following works publicly available or letting them be made publicly available, namely:..."
The court has not ordered the site blocked, but the texts in question taken down.
Re:Project Gutenberg blocks access from Germany
by incompatible on Saturday March 03, 2018 @10:09PM
(#16513052)
Sure, but if the defendants don't have any interests in Germany, how would the claim be enforced?
In this case the legal situation seems clear. The case is about several books written by Heinrich Mann, Thomas Mann and Alfred Döblin, who died less than 70 years ago, and all their works are still in copyright in Germany. However, copyright law in the US is more complex, and their works published before 1923 are public domain there.
Project Gutenberg has every right to publish these works from a web server located in the United States. If Germany doesn't like it, it can order that Gutenberg's website be blocked, like is already done with sites like The Pirate Bay in many countries, and with many other sites in restrictive countries like China.