Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Louisiana

I like to read aloud and record published books. I then add sound effects to the recording and ultimately burn them to CD for personal use. Some of these books were published a long time ago 20 plus years and some within the last few years.

Is it legal to post my recordings of the books on sites for down load for free and/or for a charge? Would this be any kind of copyright infringement?

Thank You


Asked on 7/08/10, 6:56 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Adam Lambert The Law Office of Adam S. Lambert

It would be copyright infringement, unless the book is in the public domain. Essentially any book published within the last 75 years is still copyrighted and not in the public domain.

What you are proposing would only be legal for books in the public domain, like the classics.

By the way, there is a site where you can find public domain audio books online already. It is called LibriVox (www.librivox.org). There is also a site that has public domain books in e-book format online, called The Gutenberg Project (www.gutenberg.org). If the book is on either of those sites, it is in the public domain. If it is not, it is copyrighted and you can't publish any reading of it.

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Answered on 7/08/10, 11:07 am


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