Recently stumbled upon this: The first twenty chapters of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality being sold for $11 online.

How is this not blatantly illegal? Sure, his previous method (donations for updates) was pretty dodgy but this is just straight up copyright infringement, unless I'm missing something.

So yeah, I know DLP's history with this fic and particularly its author (hence I brought it to Jon before posting) but lets try to keep this a bit civil.

 

They can get away with it because they are selling it at manufacturing cost. The guy who made it has been plugging it here.

It's not actually made by LessWrong, it's a fan who decided to make printed copies. I don't know if that's enough to make it legal, but he seems to think it is.

 

...Why on earth would anyone buy a paper copy of that, even at manufacturing cost?

 

Because they are more or less fools.

Seriously, It's hilarious that people would buy a fan-fiction for $11. But again 50 shades of grey come in mind, not that it was much better.

Also,...there's nothing to say, only:facepalm

 

Ah, I didn't know that part. Does anyone know whether that actually makes it legal or not? I mean, wouldn't the site be profiting off of it if they take a cut (which I'd presume they would be). Still seems very dodgy to me.

 

I'm believe that it's only illegal to make a profit off other copyrighted works.

 

I enjoy how the word WRONG is clearly stamped on the cover as a warning.

 

Unless explicitly authorized by the authors (both JKR and ESY), it almost certainly violates Lulu's proscription regarding printing work for which the customer does not own a copyright. Lulu is quite specific about reprinting fanfiction:

Emphasis theirs. On the link provided, you can find an address where one can forward concerns regarding copyrighted work and fanfiction. If you feel strongly about it, and don't mind doing Mr. Yudkowsky a favor, you can always write them and let them know of your concerns.

 

Lol, he's actually trying to claim it under creative commons. Regardless of the legality of that (I suppose it's never been tested in court), it's a clear cut case when it comes to Lulu's policy, as Pers points out.

 

Besides the obvious problems that Pers sorted out... ugh, why in the Nine Hells is this still happening with this guy? I thought the whole MoR phenomenon had died out, and that he had stopped updating frequently.

And on a side note, if a fan is trying to shill this on his site, not just Reddit, and he ends up drawing extra ad revenue from increased traffic (presuming he had something like that arranged), wouldn't that violate fanfic policies as well? It seems like a real grey area.

 

Well, it's not as if this is a new thing; dozens of successful fanfictions have been put to print and sold over the years - there's even a Facebook group dedicated to selling a book version of Fallout Equestria.

Even so, it boggles my mind that someone would willingly pay for a copy, when free versions exist in multiple places online.

To be fair to LessWrong, though, it does seem as if some random bloke has just decided to create a printed copy without consulting him. It isn't really his fault. So, unless LessWrong decides to link to it or endorse it, it's the other guy's problem.

 

Taure will be pleased. Less Wrong may just get sued by Rowling after all.

It is illegal.

 

The question is not the legality anymore, but rather whether Less Wrong had knowledge of this, and ok'ed it. Then he is totally violating copy-right all over the place. Otherwise he is just a guy who got something he posted on the internet published without his knowledge.

 

Looks like it's gone from lulu.com:

"Hmmm, we can't find this product, but we have many other great offerings!"

 

That's nothing: DLP is apparently charging that much just to read this thread. :awesome

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I highly, highly, highly, doubt LessWrong does not know that this is going on. I've looked through the reviews for MOR, and a lot of his fans are talking about printing the fic, and then sharing it with friends. Remember, LessWrong is very interested in spreading himself past the typical Fanfiction community. I would be very surprised if he spoke out against people publishing his work.

 

Wait... there's an entire subreddit for just that particular fic? Not for HP or HPfanfiction in general, but also for MoR?

Well, damn.

Only caveat I can see with this is that fan in question isn't making any profit by selling it in print form, since the cost of the book is the manufacturing cost. I don't know the legal consequences of that, not that is seems relevant anymore since apparently the book was pulled by Lulu.

 

Whoa, does that mean you never go to the cinema, buy a book or a movie because you can (more or less) steal it? There are some fanfics I wouldn't mind having sitting on my bookshelf.