Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
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[INCOMPLETE SINCE OCTOBER] Invalid Bootleg Editions
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I think you're going to have to contact support about this.
Since librarians are able to invalidate books as long as they're below a certain threshold of times shelved, I don't think I would need support for this one unless librarians are no longer able to invalidate Kindle editions.
We have the capability, but since this is a piracy/legality thing, better to reach out to Support.
It was already established by Jaclyn in the thread I linked in the OP that Goodreads policy for handling unauthorized ebook copies is to just invalidate them.
I think it is difficult because for years librarians were told that invalidating or merging a book with valid identifiers could cost us our librarian rights. Anything involving legal or piracy concerns had to go to support. Now we can handle some of these cases as Jaclyn said, but the line is not very clear, and this is still not fully explained in the manual. It is easy to make a mistake. So I understand why other librarians are cautious with these requests. I am too. I do not want to do the wrong thing and lose my rights.That is why Scott and Liralen suggested contacting support. You can wait to see if someone wants to handle it, but from my point of view it is a bit risky. Maybe it is just a mental barrier after so many years of following the old rules. Even with the new policy about replacing Kindle covers, it still feels strange to do something we were told for years was a serious violation. It is a bit of a whiplash. Sorry for the small rant.
All the books you linked are still available on Amazon, except the last one which appears to not be available anymore. This seems like an older book. Are you sure it is not already in the public domain and free from copyright?
The description for this edition on Amazon says: https://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibo...
"This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work."
I mean I know this could be fake or misleading information, but just what I found. I dig a bit more and in the U.S., for a work by an individual author, copyright generally lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years. Since Miller died in 1996, that would put expiry around 2066. I don't know if this applies in this case. Amazon is one of our "Acceptable sources for covers and book data" so yeah, not saying I will handle this or anything I would be too scared to mark these invalid, sorry.
Just to clarify, I’m not arguing the point — I’m only explaining why I personally hesitate with the bootleg editions. If someone else wants to handle it, that’s totally fine.
Tami wrote: "That is why Scott and Liralen suggested contacting support."I hesitate to contact support for anything beyond the most basic information changes because I've had way too many incidents of them completely screwing up a book's information and having to ask them to correct their own mistakes. If you scroll back up to the thread in the OP, you can see that when I tried to explain the bootleg copy situation, they answered a completely irrelevant question.
Tami wrote: "Are you sure it is not already in the public domain and free from copyright?"
You kind of answered your own question a couple paragraphs down, but yes, I'm positive that this isn't in the public domain. The person who wrote that Amazon description is, pardon my French, completely bullshitting.
I get the hesitancy though, and frankly I think it would be a good idea if Jaclyn or whoever is in charge of the policy pages got it down in writing that invalidating unauthorized bootlegs like these is totally fine.
Giving this another bump in case any librarians want to invalidate these. Also considering putting an "ATTN: Jaclyn" in the thread title to see if she can step in and confirm the policy for unauthorized digital editions.
The book A Canticle for Leibowitz does not have any Kindle edition available in the United States, so people regularly attempt to sell stolen ebooks as Kindle editions of the book. Because of how Goodreads works, the site automatically imports these bootleg editions regardless of site policy. As such, the following editions need to be marked invalid:
A. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
B. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
C. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
D. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...