Copyright
- Thread starter Leslie
- Start date
- Status
TsonMariytho
Puritan Board Freshman
If the original author has placed a work in the public domain, another person cannot take it out of the public domain. However, if another person meaningfully modifies it or adds to it, then he can then copyright the "derived work".
Whitefield
Puritan Board Junior
The form or medium of presentation can be copyrighted, but the content (the public domain material) itself is not copyrightable.
So, you wrote the V. M. Manual, but your mission modified it slightly and copyrighted it?
What's the story?
If you have objections to your org's use of your copyright, remember that copyrights are property and property is transferrable. Find another group that you have faith in and transfer your copyright to them and this would reduce any profit-mongering by your own group if you have objections to them.
If your work is on public domain I really don't see how your org could profit from it if you have released it to the whole missions community. I guess they could modify it and include portions of the information into their own manuals and claim you as their own since you are an "employee" of that mission. I am not sure how much they would need to reword your writing though.
Have you thought of having someone create a website with a downloadable PDFs of the VMM? This would ensure its free distribution.
What's the story?
If you have objections to your org's use of your copyright, remember that copyrights are property and property is transferrable. Find another group that you have faith in and transfer your copyright to them and this would reduce any profit-mongering by your own group if you have objections to them.
If your work is on public domain I really don't see how your org could profit from it if you have released it to the whole missions community. I guess they could modify it and include portions of the information into their own manuals and claim you as their own since you are an "employee" of that mission. I am not sure how much they would need to reword your writing though.
Have you thought of having someone create a website with a downloadable PDFs of the VMM? This would ensure its free distribution.
As it is now, I hold the copyright on the book. They own all the hard copies which are now almost all gone. My husband is now formatting the new edition which should be ready for the press in a couple months. They run a course to teach non-medical missionaries how to do basic medical care (I authored all the course materials) and have a monopoly on it. It's on the course, not the book, that they charge excessively in my opinion. A mission board with a more frugal outlook could do a better course for much cheaper.
I'd like to have only hard copy on the public domain if that is feasible. An electronic copy is easily abused and I carry no malpractice insurance. My ideal is that any mission board that assents to the Apostle's Creed and Nicene Creed could get their own hard copy of the VMM and course materials and reproduce them for their own members. I have no problem with the course materials (lectures, problem sets, case studies and the like) being in electronic form. However, I have no clue how to go about making that happen or if it would be feasible cost-wise.
How easy is it for someone to make an electronic copy from hard copy? If it's easy, then I'm in trouble--going to public domain would be stupid. Someone could use an electronic copy to make a whiz-bang diagnositic cook-book. Type in any set of symptoms, push enter, and get a diagnosis. Then sue Mary when this guy in Alaska doesn't have African Sleeping Sickness after all.
Last edited:
I am not sure they could sue you could they?
Add a disclaimer, "This manual is not to be a replacement for care by qualified professionals."
You could always password protect the site and only give the mission orgs the password key to open up the files...I would hope they are a demographic that is not as sue-happy as the rest of the West.
Where's the PB lawyers! To enlighten us?
Add a disclaimer, "This manual is not to be a replacement for care by qualified professionals."
You could always password protect the site and only give the mission orgs the password key to open up the files...I would hope they are a demographic that is not as sue-happy as the rest of the West.
Where's the PB lawyers! To enlighten us?
I have all the disclaimers in there already, a whole page-full--was that way since the first--but an attorney some years ago told me I'm still vulnerable. The password protection is a good idea as long as I'm around. Missionaries and their organizations are not suit-happy in general but many come from unbelieving families that resent their faith and obedience.
The book is such that whoever gets the rights to it could make a financial killing at the expense of the missions community. It seems to me that if I give a camera-ready copy to two or three organizations with a track record of both frugality and hearts for the kingdom of God, all non-exclusive, then it would be really hard for someone to get total control. What do you think?
Guido's Brother
Puritan Board Junior
Lightbulb moment over here. I had no idea that the author of the aforesaid manual was gracing the P.B. It sure was a blessing for us when we were out in the bush, a long ways out from medical care.
For the record, my mission board did not modify my manuscript and then copyright it. My fear was for the future, if the manuscript should go to public domain. Apparently the fear was unfounded--it's protected.
The new edition is long, maybe 800 pages. Do you guys who use the manual have any suggestions how to do disseminate the material, considering that I'm technologically challenged? I'm not interested in making big bucks off of it. Would it be possible to convert it to pdf (whatever that is), put it on CD's or memory sticks, and then reproduce the CD's and sell them cheap, one per mission board, to be downloaded onto the computers of their members? If this were downloaded onto your laptops, would you also want hard copy or would the electronic copy be sufficient?
Another option that passed my mind was to approach TALC, the British charity that publishes at low cost for the developing world. They are not Christians but have great products of this sort at very low cost.
Would it be useful to you guys or your mission board (or any other mission board) for someone to come and teach a 2-week course for mission candidates? It would be a "How to be your own Doctor in Timbuktu" course. This is a second issue for me--how to get the course recorded and into an electronic form, within the next 18 months or so. If it were possible to teach the course and record it, then someone more tech-savvy that I could make it available to the upcoming generations of missionaries.
The new edition is long, maybe 800 pages. Do you guys who use the manual have any suggestions how to do disseminate the material, considering that I'm technologically challenged? I'm not interested in making big bucks off of it. Would it be possible to convert it to pdf (whatever that is), put it on CD's or memory sticks, and then reproduce the CD's and sell them cheap, one per mission board, to be downloaded onto the computers of their members? If this were downloaded onto your laptops, would you also want hard copy or would the electronic copy be sufficient?
Another option that passed my mind was to approach TALC, the British charity that publishes at low cost for the developing world. They are not Christians but have great products of this sort at very low cost.
Would it be useful to you guys or your mission board (or any other mission board) for someone to come and teach a 2-week course for mission candidates? It would be a "How to be your own Doctor in Timbuktu" course. This is a second issue for me--how to get the course recorded and into an electronic form, within the next 18 months or so. If it were possible to teach the course and record it, then someone more tech-savvy that I could make it available to the upcoming generations of missionaries.
panta dokimazete
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Is it only in hard copy today? Do you have it in any electronic format?
A 800 page PDF would be hard to use...anything you do would be better if it were searchable. A website or a searchable PDF (is there such a thing) so that symptoms could be searched, would be good.
I come home in June to the US.
I could find a place and a group of students probably if we could find a camera-man to record the course in high quality and edit out any dead space in the class. Record the lecture, add in the accompanying power point, etc.
Are you prepared to be on camera? Also, do you have equipment and hand outs ready and a learning lab equipped to be able to show basic procedures?
I'll help anyway I can.
FOR THOSE THAT DO NOT KNOW: Leslie has written the finest book out there for missionaries to use in third-world situations. I use it weekly and it is a bigger help than consults with US docs who are not familiar with tropical medicine or wasting diseases, parasites, etc. This would be a worthy project for PB-brethren to jump onboard.
I come home in June to the US.
I could find a place and a group of students probably if we could find a camera-man to record the course in high quality and edit out any dead space in the class. Record the lecture, add in the accompanying power point, etc.
Are you prepared to be on camera? Also, do you have equipment and hand outs ready and a learning lab equipped to be able to show basic procedures?
I'll help anyway I can.
FOR THOSE THAT DO NOT KNOW: Leslie has written the finest book out there for missionaries to use in third-world situations. I use it weekly and it is a bigger help than consults with US docs who are not familiar with tropical medicine or wasting diseases, parasites, etc. This would be a worthy project for PB-brethren to jump onboard.
PDFs can/are searchable as long as the document is prepared by typing the text in and not just by scanning, I believe.
There are programs that can convert word docs into searchable PDFs, if I am not wrong.
panta dokimazete
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
You are correct - typed data works best - we could even set up a wiki site with videos - Rich or I could easily host it on our servers.
Searchable PDFs for traveling folks with no Internet or the wiki for those with Internet access - could be of enormous benefit - again - I would be happy to help from an Information Technology perspective.
-----Added 12/26/2008 at 10:45:27 EST-----
What does V.M. Manual stand for? I will start another thread to discuss virtualizing it.
Searchable PDFs for traveling folks with no Internet or the wiki for those with Internet access - could be of enormous benefit - again - I would be happy to help from an Information Technology perspective.
-----Added 12/26/2008 at 10:45:27 EST-----
What does V.M. Manual stand for? I will start another thread to discuss virtualizing it.
We are self-supporting--not affluent but can pay our own way since we have frugal habits.
My need is for technological advice rather than financial support. If I were to die today, my years of teaching and developing learning materials would all go down the drain. It appears in the best interest of the Kingdom of God to preserve the materials for subsequent generations of missionaries, making sure that no one person or group has the monopoly on it. Perhaps if I distribute the manuscript in a form that cannot be searched, any abuse of the system by a search engine would not be my responsibility.
Probably next fall I'll be obliged to return to the states briefly. By that time, my strength should be sufficient to teach a course. Between now and then it should be possible to refine the lectures and gather the lab material. To teach, I need a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 15 students, fully committed for 2 weeks (minus the middle weekend) plus an appropriate venue--classroom, extra tables and chairs, and the like. We can discuss it.
My need is for technological advice rather than financial support. If I were to die today, my years of teaching and developing learning materials would all go down the drain. It appears in the best interest of the Kingdom of God to preserve the materials for subsequent generations of missionaries, making sure that no one person or group has the monopoly on it. Perhaps if I distribute the manuscript in a form that cannot be searched, any abuse of the system by a search engine would not be my responsibility.
Probably next fall I'll be obliged to return to the states briefly. By that time, my strength should be sufficient to teach a course. Between now and then it should be possible to refine the lectures and gather the lab material. To teach, I need a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 15 students, fully committed for 2 weeks (minus the middle weekend) plus an appropriate venue--classroom, extra tables and chairs, and the like. We can discuss it.
I convert scanned PDFs almost on a daily basis. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has come a long way. Recently I took 2000 pages of scanned documents sent to me electronically in image files. Adobe Acrobat converted them to searchable PDFs in a few minutes.
So I recommend the PDF route. Once the document has been prepared, it's very easy to copy to CDs or DVDs, or upload to a server, etc. It is exactly what Ages software and others have been doing for years.
Hippo
Puritan Board Junior
On a side note it is always best to assert copyright and then choose not to charge for the contents if you choose not to but you then retain the right to stop someone else adding bits and asserting rights over the ammended document.
All a copyright is in essence is a right to take legal action against someone else who is breaching that copyright, it is not in itself a right to anything else.
All a copyright is in essence is a right to take legal action against someone else who is breaching that copyright, it is not in itself a right to anything else.
Another thought: Set up your own charitable foundation or 501c3 and charge only enough to recompense yourself for shipping and printing of manuals, or else find a Christian group already doing this that you know is not money-hungry and add your book to their ongoing works. If you do end up making profits, you can channel the funds back to those needing food in Ethiopia.
TsonMariytho
Puritan Board Freshman
You can upload a PDF to Lulu.com, and specify that it is to be sold at cost (i.e. no money kicked back to you as the author). You can also specify that people can only order it in hard copy form.
Lulu sounds perfect for your purposes. They handle all the printing, binding, purchase transactions, and shipping. I have used Lulu in the past and was very happy with it.
EDIT -- when I say "you" obviously I'm not talking to Pergamum! :^)
Last edited:
It is in hard copy. It is also on MS Word on our laptops where we are currently doing the final formatting, indexing, and a few last-minute editing changes. These should be done within the next month at the outside. We did not use a publishing program so when it's done to our satisfaction, we will print out the whole business and then try to talk some printer into using camera-ready hard copy. The pagination is really touchy so we don't dare give a printer an electronic copy.
-----Added 12/26/2008 at 01:10:59 EST-----
Do I understand this correctly? If I were to transmit a hard copy of the final manuscript, someone with some computer savy could prepare a PDF version of it and send me a CD or DVD of it. I would be able to copy these CD's or DVD's. Then a mission board could request a copy of this for which they would pay a pittance and which they would agree to use for only their members. The threat of a malpractice suit still bothers me. However, running scared on this does not seem like a very Godly attitude.
BTW, Leslie, are you aware that Google Books features the 2000 edition in preview format?
Village Medical Manual: A Layman's ... - Google Book Search
Two things can be seen from this: first, you can see that their electronic version is searchable; second, there's no getting away from electronic copies hitting the internet. As hinted at above, keep the copyright going so you have control and do the best you can with the disclaimers.
Village Medical Manual: A Layman's ... - Google Book Search
Two things can be seen from this: first, you can see that their electronic version is searchable; second, there's no getting away from electronic copies hitting the internet. As hinted at above, keep the copyright going so you have control and do the best you can with the disclaimers.
This sounds perfect. We can go from hard copy to PDF and thus have the pagination set in concrete. Then the PDF goes to LuLu and we're in business.
TsonMariytho
Puritan Board Freshman
Yes. The PDF format rules! But be aware that Lulu is (justifiably) picky about their PDF documents. For a painless experience, you must:
1. Use Adobe Acrobat to create the PDF (you can still use Word or your favorite electronic publishing software, you just have to print your document through Adobe Acrobat).
2. Tell Acrobat to "embed TrueType fonts" in the document.
Adobe Acrobat is a bit expensive ($200 - $300 or so), so if you don't already own it, you may want to find a friend with a copy who can generate the PDF for you. Please contact me if you end up trying any of this stuff and get stuck; I would be glad to assist.
Last edited:
My schedule is flexible as of now. I could fly here October for a November course or it could be end-December to do a January course. Setting up a course--housing, food, venue, space for labs and the like, is a really big task, requiring a huge time commitment. If we're adding video and audio recording, putting case studies into electronic form, making hand-outs for problem sets, the requirement would be even more. Whoever does this should be compensated.
panta dokimazete
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Leslie - I have sent you a PM.
-----Added 12/26/2008 at 07:21:04 EST-----
I believe CutePDF is pretty good, as well - also - I believe OpenOffice supports native pdf generation. Both tools are free. Not sure how they interact with Lulu, but pdf is a "universal" format...
-----Added 12/26/2008 at 07:21:04 EST-----
I believe CutePDF is pretty good, as well - also - I believe OpenOffice supports native pdf generation. Both tools are free. Not sure how they interact with Lulu, but pdf is a "universal" format...
- Status
