The Crypto Mine Cypher

[SkyWarp]

The chapter from a new book based on the Hardy Boys has been released for people to get a sneak peak.

Pre-Orders are here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CH2D4QP8

Here is the excerpt from the book: https://bayportmysteries.substack.com/p/happy-labor-day

[MacGyver]

So I guess we go full circle and have The Hardy Boys fan fiction get legitimized now that the first few books are in the public domain. I see that this author has decided to give Frank a sister instead of a brother. That's an interesting change to the dynamics.
    I would regard these sorts of books as legitimate towards canon as I would regard Sherlock Holmes stories written by other authors long after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's death, making use of public domain characters.  They can be fun to read but I don't really think of them as official. Thanks for letting us know about it in any case.

[tomswift2002]

So I guess we go full circle and have The Hardy Boys fan fiction get legitimized now that the first few books are in the public domain. I see that this author has decided to give Frank a sister instead of a brother. That's an interesting change to the dynamics.
    I would regard these sorts of books as legitimate towards canon as I would regard Sherlock Holmes stories written by other authors long after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's death, making use of public domain characters.  They can be fun to read but I don't really think of them as official. Thanks for letting us know about it in any case.

Yeah that was an interesting change.

I was surprised that I was able to access it here in Canada, since the first 3 Hardy Boys are still copyrighted up here.  Of course the John Button-solo written books are public domain in Canada. 

But one thing authors will have to remember with the public domain books, at least in the US, they could only use the characters and events in those books.  This is like we saw over the past 10 years where people could write new Sherlock Holmes stories, but they couldn't use any characters or events that were in any of the then-still-copyrighted stories without permission of the Doyle estate.  (Not to mention that the books could be published in Canada & the UK without seeking permission as all the Holmes stories were public domain in both countries but they would need permission in the US).

[MacGyver]

Yeah that was an interesting change.

I was surprised that I was able to access it here in Canada, since the first 3 Hardy Boys are still copyrighted up here.  Of course the John Button-solo written books are public domain in Canada. 

But one thing authors will have to remember with the public domain books, at least in the US, they could only use the characters and events in those books.  This is like we saw over the past 10 years where people could write new Sherlock Holmes stories, but they couldn't use any characters or events that were in any of the then-still-copyrighted stories without permission of the Doyle estate.  (Not to mention that the books could be published in Canada & the UK without seeking permission as all the Holmes stories were public domain in both countries but they would need permission in the US).

Right. So if you have a book using the character of Officer Con Riley or even Jack Wayne or Sam Radley (I don't think any of them are in the first three books)- you would have a clear copyright violation. Of course, I feel like that doesn't always get that strongly enforced because I have seen a number of fan fiction stories getting passed as legit and bring sold as ebooks on Amazon and such.

[SkyWarp]

The chapter that was released on the website was well written in my mind and the artwork looks very well done. 

I am assuming that as long as the book only has things that are common to the books both public in the US and Canada, then it could be fine in both countries? 

And as time goes on, I assume that more and more characters, places, and events could be references or used as they enter the public domain.  It's just a matter of keeping track of what can be used in what countries as time goes on. 

[Brentski]

Hello all! It's my first post, glad to be here.

I am the author of The Crypto Mine Cypher and wanted to address comment/concerns about public domain.

First off, I have read all of the original texts of the first 38 books (as well as the whole of the revised 58 book canon - multiple times each) I'm not claiming to have deep or special knowledge, but I have the basics covered.

As prep for this book, I reviewed the first three books of the original texts and made note of characters, locations and businesses mentioned. Con Riley is in The Tower Treasure, FWIW. The Conan Doyle estate is a good case study as they even sued people for how Holmes was characterized, saying changes in his views towards women did not manifest in print until later works that were still in copyright. Interestingly, they didn't sue Enola Holmes author/publisher until the Netflix production was announced - deep pockets I suppose.

Anyway, I have made every effort to 'color within the lines', even to the point of not using characterizations of the cast that were not part of the original (now public domain) texts. In some cases I am reverting to previous versions of the characters, in others I will be introducing novel variants of personality.

Most interesting absence in my novel - Gertrude Hardy. Her first appearance is in The Missing Chums, so she is verboten until 2024. Not to worry, there is a place for her at Hardy Investigations (which is Fenton's middle-sized business in my series).

As far as this being canon, of course I agree that is not. Canon is canon. This is (I hope) an interesting aside. I have done my best to make the book 'feel' like the old canon, but at the same time it is set in modern day and I have made character changes - with Joe being the chief example. I'll be previewing the first five chapters out on my Substack in the lead up to release on 01OCT23. I hope you will give them a go. If you like them, I believe you will enjoy the whole book. If you don't, then don't bother any more with it!

The book will be available to USA only, precisely because of copyright differences. I'm curious if anyone knows if (and which) the books are PD in other countries. If you do think they are, can you provide an official reference so I can be certain of the standing? As regards access via Substack to the sample chapters - I'll have to look into if I can geo-limit access. At a minimum I should disclose the PD status, but perhaps I'll have to abandon this release method... Ugh!

Anyway, this post is too long already. Last thing - I will be discussing the creation process, character changes, tools I used, etc. on my Substack. New posts weekly on Fridays. You can view all my posts for free on the site, and/or subscribe to recieve them via email.

Thanks and take care,
-Brent

[Brentski]

Ah, I saw the comments about John Button's books in Canada.
I'll want to dig into that. Most likely this would give me a legal window to publish in Canada - I hope.

[Brentski]

I reviewed the original texts of #18 - 21, but it's bad news for me. They do not contain the characters of Jerry, Phil or Tony. Each of them is in my book to varying degrees. So it appears publishing to Canada is out.

Worse news: I cannot figure a way to geo-restrict Substack. So I'll have to discontinue previews of the chapters. Fair is fair, I can't violate copyright because it's inconvenient. My apologies. I am considering my options.

My current thought is to move publication forward so that free previews become available on Amazon (previews look to be available currently on Barnes & Noble. I have geo-restricted the publications to USA. Also, I'll drop the table of contents onto Substack and do weekly art reveals. Better than nothing, if only by a bit.

[Brentski]

Thanks to tomswift2002 for giving me the heads-up on the worldwide distrubution of the preview chapter - saved my bacon.

As my marketing plan involved building toward the release with chapter excerpts, and these are now impossible, I've decided to move the release of the book up to 12SEP23. Amazon and B&N should reflect this change in the next day or two. Previews should be available when the titles go live. I've reduced the price of the book to $0.99 from now (when change becomes effective) until 01OCT23.

I pulled the chapter one sample from Substack. (Boo) But I've also published an update, article and preview of the table of contents and a piece of interior art on Substack. https://bayportmysteries.substack.com/p/and-so-it-has-come-to-this (Yea)

I'll now attempt to be quiet and stop spamming the forum.
-Brent

[tomswift2002]

Thanks to tomswift2002 for giving me the heads-up on the worldwide distrubution of the preview chapter - saved my bacon.

As my marketing plan involved building toward the release with chapter excerpts, and these are now impossible, I've decided to move the release of the book up to 12SEP23. Amazon and B&N should reflect this change in the next day or two. Previews should be available when the titles go live. I've reduced the price of the book to $0.99 from now (when change becomes effective) until 01OCT23.

I pulled the chapter one sample from Substack. (Boo) But I've also published an update, article and preview of the table of contents and a piece of interior art on Substack. https://bayportmysteries.substack.com/p/and-so-it-has-come-to-this (Yea)

I'll now attempt to be quiet and stop spamming the forum.
-Brent

Hi Brentski,

Yeah international copyright is annoying.  As I've said a few times, in Canada we don't have a similar law to the US's "Works for Hire", so we have to make the US Copyright work because of the Berne Convention and other international treaties.

So in Canada, even if it's a corporation that owns the copyright, the length is based on the author's life + 70 years (which is why the original "The Secret Warning" is still under copyright while the other John Button books are public domain, since  Leslie McFarlane co-wrote the book with button, and McFarlane died 12 years after Button, so it is McFarlane who is keeping the book in the copyright domain here in Canada until January 1, 2048, while it'll enter the US public domain on January 1, 2034.).

Here's a link to Canada's Copyright Law (sections 6 & 13 are relevant to our talk):

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/page-2.html#docCont


Now then, if we look at Revenge of The Desert Phantom from 1985, where the author is still unknown, as of right now, that book is scheduled to enter the Canadian Public Domain on January 1, 2061 (and the US January 1, 2081), as Canada allows 75 years of coverage for anonymously published works.  Now, if the author becomes known, then the copyright length switches to the life + 70.  So if it was discovered that James Duncan Lawrence wrote "Desert Phantom", then it's copyright would go until January 1, 2065, since Lawrence died in 1994.

[MacGyver]

Hello all! It's my first post, glad to be here.

I am the author of The Crypto Mine Cypher and wanted to address comment/concerns about public domain.

First off, I have read all of the original texts of the first 38 books (as well as the whole of the revised 58 book canon - multiple times each) I'm not claiming to have deep or special knowledge, but I have the basics covered.

As prep for this book, I reviewed the first three books of the original texts and made note of characters, locations and businesses mentioned. Con Riley is in The Tower Treasure, FWIW. The Conan Doyle estate is a good case study as they even sued people for how Holmes was characterized, saying changes in his views towards women did not manifest in print until later works that were still in copyright. Interestingly, they didn't sue Enola Holmes author/publisher until the Netflix production was announced - deep pockets I suppose.

Anyway, I have made every effort to 'color within the lines', even to the point of not using characterizations of the cast that were not part of the original (now public domain) texts. In some cases I am reverting to previous versions of the characters, in others I will be introducing novel variants of personality.

Most interesting absence in my novel - Gertrude Hardy. Her first appearance is in The Missing Chums, so she is verboten until 2024. Not to worry, there is a place for her at Hardy Investigations (which is Fenton's middle-sized business in my series).

As far as this being canon, of course I agree that is not. Canon is canon. This is (I hope) an interesting aside. I have done my best to make the book 'feel' like the old canon, but at the same time it is set in modern day and I have made character changes - with Joe being the chief example. I'll be previewing the first five chapters out on my Substack in the lead up to release on 01OCT23. I hope you will give them a go. If you like them, I believe you will enjoy the whole book. If you don't, then don't bother any more with it!

The book will be available to USA only, precisely because of copyright differences. I'm curious if anyone knows if (and which) the books are PD in other countries. If you do think they are, can you provide an official reference so I can be certain of the standing? As regards access via Substack to the sample chapters - I'll have to look into if I can geo-limit access. At a minimum I should disclose the PD status, but perhaps I'll have to abandon this release method... Ugh!

Anyway, this post is too long already. Last thing - I will be discussing the creation process, character changes, tools I used, etc. on my Substack. New posts weekly on Fridays. You can view all my posts for free on the site, and/or subscribe to recieve them via email.

Thanks and take care,
-Brent

I didn't realize Con Riley appeared in The Tower Treasure. I will have to look to see if he appears in the revised version. I haven't read these books in many years. I am used to his characterization from the Casefiles, which I assume would be off-limits still.

[MysteryFan89]

I've read most of this book.😎 I really love the characters and setting you've put them in. It feels very up to date, but not at the same time. I'd recommend this book to anyone that loves the series as much as I do.

Can't wait for more.😊

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Brentski]

Thanks!

[MysteryFan89]

Thanks!

I also like reading your blog posts as well. Love your take on female Joe Hardy.