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Poster: Branko Collin Date: May 27, 2007 12:57pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: watermarks

Great way to insult your patrons, Gabe.

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Poster: sorrento Date: Sep 1, 2007 3:06pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: watermarks

You can bet that when big business gets involved in a project like this there is no 'free lunch.' What we have here is Microsoft trying to catch up with Google. By all means let them have some credit for their scanning efforts, but wouldn't you think their involvement would be adequately acknowledged by a credit on the verso of the title page?.....It is possible to get rid of he watermark but it requires putting the PDF through OCR software such as Abbyy Fineradrer. Avoid the temptation to remove the watermark in Abbyy- I tried this and lost the material completely. The best way is to save the OCR results as a Word doc. Then open (in Word) : Edit/ Replace, enter 'Scanned by Microsoft (R)', enter nothing in the Replace box, press Find next, then press Replace all, and voila, the cursed words disappear. This isn't a trouble-free solution because the text you have after OCR needs to be checked for accuracy.
I have scanned numerous books for PG and similar sites on a purely voluntary basis.I don't expect restrictions to be placed on the use of texts I have contributed. The truth is that Microsoft, as much as it would wish, cannot restrict the use of the books they have had scanned, except physically through use of the watermark. THey can do nothing to stop the scanned text being used by any individual in whatever way he or she wishes - removing the watermark does not as far as I knowinfringe any law. I have noticed that quite a few of Microsoft's scanned texts are ones that I have scanned independently in the past. I am tempted to upload them so they can be used without restriction.