Show HN: Printstack – I'll print and post your Substacks to you(printstack.net) I've been turning individual Substacks into books -- actual paperbacks and hardbacks that you can put on your shelf -- for a little time now. (See the homepage.) So when a friend pointed me towards a tweet about doing it weekly across all a person's subscriptions, it seemed like a reasonable thing to test. I know where a few of the beartraps on the route from Substack to paper are. Do share feedback and thoughts. |
Regarding copyright I believe that this is fair use. It lets individual readers print their subscriptions. It's indistinguishable from them using a printer at home, except that it's delivered automatically.
But yes it's a grey zone. It's making a copy of someone's copyrighted work without their permission. (Remember it was technically illegal to load songs onto your iPod.) And so that's why the book product (which brings together all posts from one publication) is for authors, since I think that strays more towards publishing rather than mere printouts.