Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Recording Books

You need a release or license from the copyright holder,which may be the publisher the author or both. Contacting the publisher would probably be the best place to start.

Re: Recording Books

Yes, you do need to get licenses from the copyright owner.

D. Alexander Floum is an experienced intellectual property and e-commerce attorney. Alex teaches intellectual property law to practicing lawyers and law school students.

The Schinner Law Group is a full-service law firm, providing assistance in business, corporate, tax, litigation, contracts, intellectual property and related areas of law.

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Re: Recording Books

Yes, you need permission. If you need help contact me directly!!

Re: Recording Books

Before you can make use of anyone else's copyrighted work, you will need to obtain their permission. You can avoid this problem by only recording public domain materials (that means works on which the copyright has expired). In this case, it sounds like you will need a license from the rights holder. You can find out who the rights holder is by looking in the inicia in the front of the book you wish to record. Usually all the copyright information is there. Most major publishers have a rights clearing office. These offices usually deal with licensing excerpts from a book, they may not want to license the whole thing. If they do, expect to have to pay them a royalty on each sale. If you get to the stage of negotiating with them for the rights, you probably should retain an attorney to represent your interests.

Feel free to contact me if I can be of help.

Howard Leib