Mr. Philip Roeder <roeder@suhrkamp.de>
Susanne Bauditz <bauditz@suhrkamp.de>
Suhrkamp Verlag GmbH & Co. KG
Insel Verlag Anton Kippenberg GmbH & Co. KG
Lindenstrasse 29-35
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: 069-75601-512
Dear Ms. Bauditz & Mr. Roeder:
We have received your email message concerning Herman Hesse's
SIDDHARTHA, copied below. Your email appears to pertain to our eBooks
#2499 and 2500, as published and distributed by Project Gutenberg since
2001:
Feb 2001 Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse [Our English Edition] [siddhxxx.xxx] 2500
Feb 2001 Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse [In 8-bit German] [?siddxxx.xxx] 2499
Per your request concerning this title, we have performed exhaustive
research over the years on this subject, and have found there is no
applicability of copyright laws from one country to any other country,
even in cases of publishing materials on the Internet or the World Wide
Web.
As you will observe in our Siddhartha eBooks, there is a clear statement
at the beginning of each file giving warning concerning copyright laws:
"Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to
check the copyright laws for your country before downloading
or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook."
The copyright status of the eBook #2499, which was taken from a 1922
publication of SIDDHARTHA, is not in question: it is public domain in
the United States. Project Gutenberg operates eBook servers only in the
United States.
We would be more than happy to write a letter requesting our eBook
#2499 be deleted from sites in any country in which it is copyrighted,
or otherwise similarly protected, in conjunction with any efforts you
might be making. Just let us know to whom to send them.
Your claim to any rights concerning our #2500, however, is both without
basis in fact and morally reprehensible. Our #2500 is our own
translation, which was granted to the public domain by our volunteers.
You can have no possible valid copyright on this item. Your claim of,
"sole, exclusive and unencumbered ownership of all
rights of every kind and character in and to the work
'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse throughout the world,"
as applies to our English translation of this work, must be rejected.
We have had the heads of several major law libraries do research on
these particular matters on our behalf, and are confident we are in an
exemplary position as per our copyright research and procedures, including
our distribution methods and practices.
Our research has shown there is no case law to support your claim:
"Because of the worldwide accessibility to your Website,
you are only allowed to release works on it that are
already in the public domain worldwide."
Of course, if you should come across any new case law or rulings that
might effect some change, we would be only too happy for an opportunity
to do even more research concerning such cases.
Nevertheless, we remain at your disposal to assist in any effort you may
make to protect such copyrights as do exist for SIDDHARTHA.
Sincerely,
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
CEO
Cc:
Steve Harris, PGLAF Corporate Attorney
Michael J. Lynch, Director of the Law Library, John Marshall Law School
Michael S. Hart, Project Gutenberg Founder
----- Forwarded message -----
From: "Susanne Bauditz" <bauditz@suhrkamp.de>
To: gbnewby@pglaf.org
Cc: roeder@suhrkamp.de
Subject: Copyright infringement
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:56:04 +0100
Dear Dr. Newby,
I hereby wish to introduce myself as the in-house legal adviser at
Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt, Germany.
Suhrkamp has the sole, exclusive and unencumbered ownership of all
rights of every kind and character in and to the work "Siddhartha" by
Hermann Hesse throughout the world. Suhrkamp also represents the heirs
of Hermann Hesse.
You have released a German and an English version of "Siddhartha" on
your Website www.gutenberg.org. Because it is possible to download the
German version from your Website, this has resulted in Suhrkamp
suffering finacial losses. We know that the copyright for "Siddhartha"
has expired in the United States. In our opinion however, this is
irrelevant because the ebooks on your Website can be easily accessed,
read and downloaded from anywhere in the world. Because of the worldwide
accessibility to your Website, you are only allowed to release works on
it that are already in the public domain worldwide. "Siddhartha" is
still copyrighted in Germany, Europe and many other countries. For this
reason, you have infringed on our copyright. Furthermore, this copyright
infringement cannot be eliminated or remedied by the fact, that, before
users of your Website begin downloading ebooks from your Website, you
notify them to first check whether or not downloading the ebooks is in
accordance with the copyright laws of the country in which they reside.
It is for these reasons that we demand you to remove "Siddhartha" from
your Website. If you wish to respond to this matter, please send your
response to our managing director Mr. Philip Roeder
(roeder@suhrkamp.de).
Sincerely,
Susanne Bauditz