Loeb III torrent

Lotsa new Loebs for your lobes! Many of these new discoveries came from two perspicacious readers of “latin4everyone” <http://latin4everyone.wordpress.com>, ZL in Croatia and Solon in Brazil. We have been collaborating on these over many months. 

LCL readers should be aware Harvard University Press has finally released all 520 Loeb volumes as digital files in September 2014. Theirs are prettier than ours and likely searchable (even in Greek!). In order to access the digital content, one must purchase a pricey subscription. However, the real downside is that the texts are not downloadable so they are not available for ready access unless, that is, you keep paying and paying and paying.

However, we believe all such works of classical knowledge, spreading understanding of the modern world through a thorough examination of our past, should be free. Roman and Greek authors, of course, are in no position to receive royalties! Nor are their far-descendants readily determined. 

It may be argued that the translators of each work deserve a share of sales. However, most Loeb volumes are actually reformatted books which were originally published before the turn of the century (that’s the 20th century!). The vast majority of Loeb volumes were first published pre-war (that’s World War II!).

While this is not true of the newer translations since digitisation, many of us loyal Loeb readers liked the antiquated character of the translated texts. If the new translations have been modernised or, worse, made political correct so that, Goddess forbid, we don’t offend anybody, that does us all a great disservice. You be the judge.

It’s very hard to make an argument that any but the most recent LCL translations deserve to pay royalties to their translators (the rest are long dead!). It may come as no surprise that, of all the eminent Loeb translators, I can find only two among the living. One of them has replied to me that he received only a one-time payment and discount on LCL purchases! In fact, at least one Loeb translator, William Watts, translated St. Augustine’s Confessions in 1631! This, again, begs the question, to whom, then, is Harvard University Press paying royalties by arguing copyright.

We think the entire Loeb Classical Library catalogue should be non-profit, freely available for everyone.

The government and capitalist concept of copy”right” is far removed from reality. US copyright law “protects” a work for 90 years after the death of the creator. (For corporate authorship, 120 years!) This is, of course, risible in the case of classical knowledge. (Who pays Plutarch?!?) But even for modern works, we don’t think anyone’s grandchildren deserve profit from grandpa’s good luck!

If you want a fall-on-the-floor, laughing-out-loud experience, check out what U.S. government functionaries get paid for: http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm.

This intolerable situation has kept everyone in abject confusion for far too long. Essential and wonderful works which are not profitable are pulped and allowed to go out-of-print, making them unavailable to the rest of us. Online repositories are afraid to make books publicly available lest they be charged and fined.

It is indefensible for even public repositories with agreements to scan major libraries such as Google Books and others to restrict public access.

“Hoc opus, hic labor est.” Loeb III is a salvo across the bows of the USS Copyright. FREE THE LOEBS!

More Loebs, please! We’re still not satisfied!  <facthailand@gmail.com>