I’m sorry to say that we had to remove Omnipotent Government (1944) and Bureaucracy (1944) at the demand of Libertarian Press. As the old confusions over the copyrights to Mises’s books have shaken out, it turns out that only two of Mises’s original editions of books, excluding most recent translations and re-releases with new matter, actually fell under copyright restriction. These are the two books.
There is some hope that these two books will come into the hands of LibertyFund, which will then release them into the commons or at least permit them to be posted online, but, in the meantime, they have to come down. It’s striking how vulnerable all books under copyright are to being removed from digital circulation, and we can only thank our lucky stars (or whatever or divine source you want to thank) that Mises’s main works did not fall victim to a similar disaster. In the end, the only real protection for a work is for it to be part of the commons; otherwise it can fall victim to every human vice unleashed by government regulation. Authors be warned!
Now, you might say that this makes no sense, that any publisher actually devoted to the work of Mises, and who, for that matter, is interested in selling books too, would be happy for these books to be read online. One might think so. Sadly, if you are so enlightened, remember that not everyone is similarly so enlightened.
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Omnipotent Government was going to be my next Mises.org purchase: These books are still for sale, right?
I believe LibertyFund has plans on reprinting both these works soon.
Why doesn’t LvMI just buy out Libertarian Press?? I really find their current covers amoung the dullest out there.
Ok, checked my notes.
LibertyFund already reprinted Bureaucracy a couple of years ago. They plan on reprinting Omnipotent Government in April of next year.
just shot this quick email off to Libertarian Press;
wow.. i never heard of you people!.. the superior mises.org site will hold my attention even more.. since you wish to lock away mises and freedom material behind copyright.. you suck.. have a nice day..
Yar!
To the tubes, internet pirates!
Eek! D:
Good thing I already had those PDFs saved!
Cough up those PDFs to your almighty overlords! Forget all you may have read!
yarr!
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/bureaucracy
just in time. thank you. “omnipotent government” indeed.
an-arrgh-chy!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36997848/omnipotentgovern031824mbp
to paraphrase the great Mick Jagger – there was a period, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money from printing. But now that period is coming to an end.
tough! the mises.org-branded omnipotent government will remain on my bookshelf at work.
What, no pro-IP supporters out there lauding the great wisdom of locking away a treasure? At least Mises doesn’t have to look down with horror that people were reading these books and learning from them for free anymore.
Please respect Mises’ right to have sold the copyrights of these books. As a result he survived and wrote other treasures. Look beyond your instant gratification, you will have them again soon though not free. Of course unless you steal it like you can everything material! However, that is a moral issue now on.
for “steal”, read “share”.
ummm Mises had nothing to do with it. There’s much about copyright you do not understand.
I have already downloaded and read Omnipotent Government – it is brilliant.
Now I’m curious to read also Bureaucracy – after I finish Theroy and History.
To piratebay, citoyens!
But . . . but . . . but copyright is needed so that more books are written! Otherwise this misus individual would not write more books!
Right?
[BTW, I misspelled "Mises" on purpose]
So very right! And the more old books become unavailable, the more new ones will have to be written!
Creative destruction, applied to books.
I’ve read some bits of Omnipotent Government. It proved that Mises was a lucid and passionate historian, and not just a magnificent economist.
Bureaucracy is quite an insightful book.
Wow! What a shame that Libertarian Press owner Robert Sennholz, whose father spread the ideas of Austrian economics and libertarianism to so many, would try to keep the ideas of Mises under wraps like this.
Has anyone seen this article yet? http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0013.101 (“The Short-Term Influence of Free Digital Versions of Books on Print Sales”)
Did this get reversed? Both books appear to be readily available from mises.org in both PDF and EPUB versions, etc.
http://mises.org/resources/875
http://mises.org/resources/5829
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