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 FSI Language Courses Forum : Learning Languages : General Discussion
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Farley
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Quote Farley Replybullet Topic: Rip Off on Ebay
    Posted: 28 March 2007 at 12:46pm
Is it just me, or is this guy, on Ebay, trying to rip off this site?

The store looks suspect to me.

http://stores.ebay.com/Everything-4-Less-Store_Language-Courses_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ9433420QQftidZ2QQtZkm
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Chung
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Quote Chung Replybullet Posted: 28 March 2007 at 2:22pm

This has been going on for a couple of months now.

 
You're right to feel suspicious.
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sepulnation
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Quote sepulnation Replybullet Posted: 28 March 2007 at 11:14pm
well, at least if they buy through him they dont have to pay the extreme price people used to have to pay to have access to these courses. It is sad how hes profiting off of other peoples work though.
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 31 March 2007 at 3:22pm
Since there isn't any formal formal license notice given on this site, anyone who wishes to resell the language probably should refer to the Project Gutenberg License for how to use public domain works:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Project_Gutenberg_License

Essentially:

1.
The language PDF and MP3 files on this site are in the public domain in the United States (see item 3 below concerning the Mandarin course). They may or may not be in the public domain in other countries.  You need to check your country's copyright laws. Public domain means you may copy and
  • give away
  • sell
  • modify (and copyright just your changes)
  • redistribute on your own website
  • use the audio background on a movie or radio show
  • etc
2.
The site's non-public domain material is copyrighted, so you can't just clone the site.  If you resell or modify the language material, you shouldn't mention this site without permission (since that might infer official approval).

3.
Be sure to read the notice in the text of the Mandarin language books.  These may be given away, but its not clear that these may be resold by themselves or included with any other sold material.  Make sure your copyright lawyer reviews the material.

This is only my take on the matter.  GDF sets the official policy.
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genome
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Quote genome Replybullet Posted: 30 April 2007 at 8:50pm
To be fair, I still think that this person is offering a good bargain. Let's face it $14 is still a bargain when you consider:
  1. The price of several other courses, such as Pimsleur, and Rossetta Stone, which I have been lead to understand do not offer the same depth or breadth as these courses do, yet cost 10+ times extra due to fancy branding.
  2. The value that your $14 will bring, in purchasing one of these courses, by allowing you to communicate in a different language. Even though you shalln't be fluent afterwards, this course apparently builds a good foundation.
  3. The fact that all the units, etc are available on the CD (mind that this is just an assumption), which would allow for quick progression
  4. The variety of languages available
  5. Many, in the US, would spend more than $14 on a night out
  6. The hardcopy and tapes are difficult to find and often cost much more that $14.
  7. It is a very time consuming process. A case in point would be this website: lots of generous people have contributed a lot of time and effort towards increasing the availability of F.S.I material by uploading it onto this website, and they should be commended. However, from reading the forums, it is evident that there are plenty of others with access to several other F.S.I courses (some of which are being requested). It would be wrong to hold against these people the fact that they are unwilling to upload the complete courses onto this site, as each course would involve scanning hundreds of pages and transferring several hours of audio from cassette to mp3.
Obviously, this person has spotted a market for these products, and is offering them for a respectable price. I now feel the need to emphasis that I am in no way affiliated with this store, although I have bought a similar F.S.I complete French course from ebay, but not from this seller.

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Chung
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Quote Chung Replybullet Posted: 30 April 2007 at 9:18pm
The only problem with this reseller is that except for the DLI Italian course that he is selling, virtually all of his "inventory" comes from this website. It is especially obvious when you look at the Swahili course that he is offering for it is as incomplete as this site's offering is.

Another thing to note is that the other FSI courses that he is selling are the same languages which are reasonably complete on this website (vol. 1, or vols. 1-2). For example, note how the reseller isn't selling the Finnish course (yet) since gdfellows doesn't have the textbook, but he is selling the full Hungarian Basic Course which is also complete on this website.

At the least, I would feel wrong selling the stuff even at that low price because I know very well that people could get the stuff for free on this site. Why spend $14 when you can just download and burn the material to CD yourself since you've already put down the sunk cost for your computer, the internet fees and the hydro bill.
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DemiPuppet
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Quote DemiPuppet Replybullet Posted: 03 May 2007 at 9:42pm
I can see at least 3 situations where selling on Ebay could serve a niche market:

  1. People that do not know how to use a search engine in order to locate this site
  2. People that are  scared about downloading MP3  files off the net because of all the very public legal problems with copyrighted music
  3. People living in countries in which the copyright laws do not recognize these works as being in the public domain
In case #3 above, downloading the courses would be a violation of their nation's copyright laws.  Buying a version where the actual copying was performed in the US would give them a inexpensive legal copy.  I imagine this would be most useful for foreign libraries.

It seems that very few countries allow government work into the public domain or have implemented the "Rule of the Shorter Term"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain#Rule_of_the_shorter_term
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daristani
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Quote daristani Replybullet Posted: 04 May 2007 at 5:47am
Yesterday I ran across another site that, I suspect, may be basing its offerings at least partly on what's been made available on this one.  But it's offering the courses for free.

It's http://www.freelanguagecourses.com/

So it strikes me that, even if some rip off these courses to make a few bucks, the prices will almost inevitably come down, even for those who charge, and thus the materials will be more widely available to more people at much lower cost than has been the case to date.

For this reason, all language learners owe a debt to gdfellows and the other contributors at this site.
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bickern
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Quote bickern Replybullet Posted: 03 June 2007 at 6:22pm
http://www.foreignserviceinstitute.com/

This has got to be OTT.
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