Staples refuses to print my PDFs....

[jdrakeh]

Plus, just because someone wrote something, does not prove that they still control the IP.

True. That said, in my case, the copyright portion of the document very clearly attributed ownership to me, by name. Which means that, for the purposes of that document, I held copyrights (and still do, actually). The store employee sagely assured me that only by providing appropriate documentation from the Library of Congress could I prove to their satisfaction that I actually held said copyrights. Again, as others have said, this kind of thinking borders on clinical paranoia, not responsible business practice.

 

[Psion]

The big difference is the quality of the design. Joe's looks like his brother in law made it up on Cute pdf, while CW has a higher production value.

But quality desktop publishing is becoming more accessible; that's no longer a valid criteria. More and more people are doing fancier and fancier things at a smaller scale, but can't afford to go to a dedicated publishing house to do it.

To me, it's sounding like Staples is strangling a blooming business opportunity in the crib.

 

[roguerouge]

I applaud staples, and perhaps will take my business to a copy that I know follows the rules that protect the publishers. 'Bout time someone des! It's kind of like the reason I say that you to the rare person at a check-out stand that actually checks the signature on the back of my credit card. It's what they're supposed to do. Good for them.

Besides, it isn't like getting a receipt and printing it out is all that hard. As Bento said, it isn't that hard. If they still refuse, perhaps you should contact the publisher rather than getting mad at Staples who are just doing their job? I'm sure a publisher would like to know that information so that they can either put in a disclaimer buiolt right into the pdf file about being able to print with receipt, or else send you a note to that effect.

If only everyone would play within the rules, we wouldn't need so many rules.

Nonsense. Staples wouldn't print articles that I had written in a newspaper as a freelancer when I had my identification papers on me. It made constructing a portfolio a living nightmare.

Ultimately, the maximum restriction of copyright benefits the corporate distributors at the expense of the writer, who often must sell the copyright on the work that they do. Nor does it prevent the minimally competent pirate who will either distribute their wares through file sharing sites, or own a printer if they have to print it out for their business.

 

[Delta]

As for the map of Simcity, What was wrong with printing out the Jpg with no copyright? It does sound like the guy was lazy...

Hi, Karlson. I'm going to gently suggest that it's simply more of the same very confused and murky hand-waving about copyrights that seem to go on in these shops.

For example, every artistic creation or piece of writing has, upon creation, a copyright. In the example of the Jpeg map, I own the copyright, because it's my creation.

Anyway, I tell you what... I just dug up the complaint letter I wrote back in 2001. I phoned, wrote the store, wrote coporate HQ, and never got any response to the following:

June 14, 2001

Kinko's Copies
876 Lexington
Waltham, MA 02154
attn.: H-- F--

Mr. F--:

I'm writing a letter of complaint about my inability to get service in your store on Thursday, June 14. Perhaps I should chalk this up to a misunderstanding, but I drove to your establishment this morning in order to print several poster-sized computer images, and dealt mostly with a gentleman named Dennis. The images I had were on a computer CD, having been generated by a piece of city-design software called "SimCity", and exported to a large graphic format using that program's internal "snapshot" printing facility. Dennis apparently recognized the source of the graphic images, and told me that I would not be allowed to have them printed because it would be a "copyright violation". I was very much taken aback by this assertion.

First of all, it seems quite clear that a document produced with a piece of proprietary software is copyrighted by the user of the tool, not by the software publisher, just like any document created by Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, for example. Secondly, the "SimCity" program in particular includes the facility for creating graphic images from its designs, intended specifically for the user to have them printed. Here I quote from the documentation for SimCity Classic:

When you select Snapshot from the File Menu, the entire world in the compressed Edit Window is printed to disk as a .PCX file. Load this file into many major paint programs for modification, labeling, personalizing and printing.

So I do not see how it can be held that I do not have a right to print this document. When I mentioned this to Dennis, he asserted that I had a right to print the image at home but not professionally. When I then pointed out that the graphic file generated is much larger than standard 8.5"x11" paper (which he suggested), he said that "some people" have printers in their homes that can print large-sized images. I find this to be, frankly, ridiculous.

Additionally, Dennis was apparently consulting with a person he identified as his manager on this matter. When I asked to speak to this person myself, he was unwilling to meet with me "for twenty minutes or a half hour", even though he was standing some fifteen feet away.

I found my attempt to get service in your store quite frustrating. I would appreciate some response on this matter.


Sincerely,
D--

Finally, what I would recommend for these shops is this -- have a coherent policy about what they print, that is clearly communicated, and available online. Pretty simple, really. (Although several minutes of searching the FedEx/Kinko's website today brings up nothing about what they will or will not print, or accepted file formats, or anything. If anyone could link to an actual documented declaration of one these policies, that would be great to see.)

Having an ad-hoc "we don't print stuff that makes us nervous" policy, and wasting people's time when they drive to the store, is extremely rude and unprofessional.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Does anyone else have these problems? Can I even get something written from Mongoose and Morrigan Press that says its okay to print the PDFs? Do other publishers not intend for PDFs to be printed? What's the dilleo with this? I think its insane and never had problems with this before.

Anyone else?

Yep. I even started a thread (a bit less calmly ) here along the same lines. That was a while ago, though.

Anyway, I found another print shop. No worries there. Problem solved.


I don't have time to play those sorts of games with businesses, where I'm paying them for a simple service. I regularly buy PDFS, do not "share" them, and yeah, sometimes I want them printed and bound. No way I'm even going to get into an argument with some ignorant salesperson over this kind of thing. Me, elsewhere, bye.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've had problems getting things copied at Kinkos and other professional copy places.

The oddest ones were PC sheets that had "permission to photocopy" language on them.

The next was the FBI Copyright Warning as it appeared in a comic book- I was trying to get it copied for an academic presentation at the University of Dallas. They wouldn't do it even when I presented my State of Texas Bar card and my Student ID...

I now own a copier in my house.

Unfortunately, it can't handle some of the bigger jobs I'd like to print.

...One of many reasons why WotC is losing my magazine sub money.

Personally, I'm more zealous on copyright protection than most (as some on this very thread may attest)- I'm an entertainment lawyer- but the pendulum has swung so far from companies copying anything without question to society suffering from their copyright paranoia.

 

[jdrakeh]

The oddest ones were PC sheets that had "permission to photocopy" language on them.

Yep. I've run into that a lot at Kinko's and it goes directly back to the lawsuit I mentioned earlier. Their (Kinko's Corporate) reasoning was that since their employees got sued for copying text books and re-selling them in the store for profit, it must be illegal for anybody to copy anything from all books. Which, of course, is insane. Obviously, the corporate guys at Kinko's aren't the brightest folks.

They got sued because they tried to sell xeroxed texts for profit, not simply because they copied the texts.

Of course, this doesn't even begin to address the issue of Kinko's policy painting the rest of the free world as criminals based upon the criminal actions of their own employees. Really. That's simply a mad bit of justification, a flagrant attempt to disown repsponsibility for their employee's own actions.

All of that said, Kinko's stands behind their policy firmly, no matter how insane those of us with a basic understanding of copyright law know it to be. I've actually had Kinko's staff try to physically oust myself and a friend from one of their stores for attempting to print character sheets with the words "Permission Granted to Photocopy" appearing on said sheets.

Needless to say, that Kinko's location is no longer open. And, I suspect, that this policy is a big part of what lead to hundreds of their stores being closed nationwide, their subsequent move toward bankruptcy, and their eventual acquisition by FedEx.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'll bet you they will print it if you do this:

http://www.staplescopycenter.com/ASP1/Default.aspx?content=DefaultContent

You will have to register to get to that page. I just uploaded one of my own PDFs. It'll cost me $5.89 to print 6 sheets of paper double-sided with a comb binding. When I added it to the cart but at no time did it warn me that I can't print copyrighted material. I'm not going to check out though since I don't need the print out.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Whether folks think it's a stupid policy or not, it's a policy that's being adhered to. If you don't have an explicit permission form granting you the right to print the pdf, and you're not the author of said pdf, they're not going to print it for you. I've already run into this a number of times.

One alternative that people might consider is PrintFu. It's a U.S. only business as far as I know. I haven't had a reason yet to use them, but if I need to get anything printed/bound in the future, it's what I'm going to try out. http://www.printfu.org/ They only print in black and white, but that's not a problem for me. Their cost thingy says that 150 pages would cost $11. Doesn't seem bad to me at all.

Edit: And it looks to be a heck of a lot cheaper than what Joe is paying...

 

[jdrakeh]

I'll bet you they will print it if you do this:

http://www.staplescopycenter.com/ASP1/Default.aspx?content=DefaultContent

You will have to register to get to that page. I just uploaded one of my own PDFs. It'll cost me $5.89 to print 6 sheets of paper double-sided with a comb binding. When I added it to the cart but at no time did it warn me that I can't print copyrighted material. I'm not going to check out though since I don't need the print out.

That's beautiful. What is apparently "official policy" in-store isn't mentioned once on their web submission form. Hmmmm. . .