I am going to sell eBooks on a webpage.  Can I legally use the symbols
for Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket Reader, and Palm eReader the way this
webpage does:
http://simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=479688
or do I need special permission?

I would like to make audio copies of the eBooks and sell them as Mp3
books as well.  I?ve just started research on the subject and it seems
there are some funny copyright laws regarding Mp3s.  Can I legally
sell Mp3s or do I need to sell them in some other format, ie .wav
files?

If I?m legally allowed to sell Mp3s, I?m fond of EAC and LAME
encoding, as described on this webpage:
http://cd-rw.org/articles/archive/mydeneaclame.cfm
Is this my best option for ripping Mp3s or is there a better way?

Thanks so much!

---

Clarification of Question by webusr-ga on 14 Jul 2004 20:47 PDT

Thanks for the comments.  I want to specify that Mp3 books will not
contain music - they will be audio recordings of books.  Any
introductory music at the beginning, I will write myself.

If you are going to be encoding mp3's or recording mp3's a great tool
is audacity.  This program is great for editing, recording, and
ripping wav to mp3s or mp3s to wavs.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

*good luck

Unfortunatly I think most of your problems lie within the boundries of
copyright laws, i.e., one shouldn't abrbitrarily place copyrighted
icons on a website w/out permission (although I doubt they'd mind the
free advertising!).

For example I found a partnership program that Adobe offers for their
Acrobat program http://partners.adobe.com/asn/programs/developer/index.jsp
since the it sounds like you will also be comercially selling their
files therefore the intelectual rights of their file type (i.e.
algorythms, etc.)

I'm sure that the other companies such as microsoft have  similar
partnership programs as well.

Regarding Mp3's, the music they contain are also intellectual property
of someone.  However in this case, both the artists and record labels
lay claim to this; therefore, one must strike a royalties deal with
the record labels themselves.  This, unfortunatly is hard to come by
since they already have deals with other online music stores, and
making a deal with you might violate an "exclusive rights" clause in
one of these contracts.

I suggest contacting all of the companies whose material you intend to
use first before incorporating these aspects into your website.

As for the types of encoding, that is not my forte.

Good luck with everything, and I hope that your venture is a successful one.

As to the logo question, you may find this prior comment string
helpful since the analysis is the same . . .
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=360442

As to your other issue, "I would like to make audio copies of the
eBooks . . .", I echo burfart13's comment and wonder if you have
permission of the copyright owners to make the copies?

Where are you going to get the eBooks?  That may sound like a stupid
question, but are you the author?  Are you going to act as an
ePublisher and solicit submissions from authors and then publish their
eBooks under contract?  Will you then read or have someone read the
eBooks and record the audio and turn those into mp3's?  Al of these
issues are critical to understanding what you can and cannot do under
US copyright law.

Let's assume that (1) you are going to be an ePublisher; (2) that
authors submit their works to you under a written publishing contract
that grants you rights to publish their works under the authors'
copyrights and also grants you rights to make derivative works (the
audio recordings).  If that all is true, then you should be able to
make the audio recordings in any format you wish.  The only "weird"
thing about mp3 is that it is a compression algorithm that is the
subject of some litigation at the moment because it is a patented
technology and the folks who own the patents are out suing people who
sell software used to create the mp3's.  I recommend that you buy
whatever utility you are going to use to create the mp3's from a
recognized, reputable software vendor.  But as long as you have rights
secured from the copyright owenrs, there is no express ~copyright~
issue inherent in your ripping the audio files into mp3 format.