E-books and e-publishing - Samuel Vaknin (best historical fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗
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its own courts, interpreting its own laws, in another
country. Worldwide developments in parallel to the DMCA, like
the still evolving Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and
Foreign Judgments, are giving effect to these desires. The
problem is that these efforts, like the DMCA, put intellectual
property rights above free speech rights. The same rules that
let a nation enforce a copyright judgment beyond its own
boundaries also let it enforce a censorship judgment beyond
its own boundaries. Until recently, the border-crossing
potential of the internet was a feature; now it’s a bug.
Until recently, it subjected less-free nations to the free
speech of the most-free nations. New developments threaten to
subject the most-free nations to the censorship rules of the
least-free nations. In the name of copyright enforcement,
worldwide speech rights are sinking to the lowest standard in
use anywhere.
Another development in copyright law that harms scholarship is
the extension of copyright terms, even retroactively. The
Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act (1998) retroactively added
20 years to existing copyrights. This harms scholarship by
greatly delaying the transition of copyrighted works into the
public domain. By shrinking the public domain, it shrinks the
number of modern classics that volunteers can lawfully
digitize and make freely available on the internet. For the
same reason, it tilts the balance of copyright law even
further in the direction of publishers and against the
interests of readers and researchers. Those who have looked
into it believe that the Bono Act was motivated to protect the
Disney copyright on Mickey Mouse, which would have expired in
2003. If so, this is a grotesque inversion of values. The
Uruguay Round Agreements Act (1994) is even worse, and can
remove works from the public domain and retroactively grant
them copyrights.
In short, whatever harms the rights and interests of readers
harms scholarship and research, and recent trends in copyright
law increasingly favor the rights and interests of publishers
over those of readers. Copyright law is increasingly hostile
to fair-use rights, the first sale doctrine, limited terms,
and the public domain.
Q. To summarize: is the Internet a boon or a bane as far as
publishing and scholarly exchange are concerned? It would seem
that its existence brought about the RETARDATION of users’
rights - rather than the user empowerment everyone was hoping
for.
A. The Internet is an unprecedented boon to scholarly
publishing. The only problem is that we have barely begun to
realize its full potential, including its potential to make
scholarly literature freely available to everyone with an
internet connection. We may never take full advantage of the
ways it can transform scholarly research and publication.
That requires an endless approximation process, deep
imagination, and time. But if we could just take advantage of
the opportunity it affords for free online research
literature, then the internet will have a greater beneficial
impact on research and education than lending libraries or the
Gutenberg press.
The Second Gutenberg
Interview with Michael Hart
By: Sam Vaknin
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
“Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg is a visionary who
was quite ahead of his time. In fact, it may still be several
years before his dream of universally-available literature
comes true. Nevertheless, Michael’s efforts have inspired
thousands of people around the world who now share his vision.
The progress of Project Gutenberg has been slower than many
hoped, but it has definitely helped to push forward the great
eBook dream which I share. Unfortunately, the technology,
infrastructure, and market are lagging way behind Michael’s
vision, a common hazard of being a pioneer.” - says Glenn
Sanders, Director of eBookWeb.org.
Michael S. Hart is a Professor of Electronic Text at
Benedictine University (Illinois, U.S.A.) and a former
Visiting Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University was a Fellow
of the Internet Archive for the year 2000. He founded Project
Gutenberg in 1971 and is currently its Executive Coordinator.
In more ways than one, he is the father of e-publishing and ebooks. He pioneered not only the dissemination of electronic
texts - but also some of the working models that underpinned
the Internet until the dot.com crash two years ago.
The ethos of the early Internet owes a lot to Hart. He created
a mass movement of volunteers, remote-collaborating on a
project of free access to content. There is no better
encapsulation of the gist of the Net. And PG books can be
replicated at no cost - a precursor of viral and buzz
marketing.
Project Gutenberg is, by now, an integral part of the myth and
history of our networked world. It is a worldwide library
created and maintained by a small army of dedicated volunteers
who scan, proofread, and upload dozens of new e-texts every
week. Most of these texts are in the public domain.
But a few are copyrighted - with permission to store the work
granted by authors and publishers or other copyright holders.
There are many imitators and copycats - but only one Project
Gutenberg, in scope, perseverance, dedication, and
thoroughness.
As copyright expires, thousands of works are added monthly to
the public domain and can be freely replicated and
distributed. Most of these books are out of print and saved by
the Project from obscurity and ultimate oblivion.
The recurrent extension of copyright terms by Congress hampers
this work by restricting the growth of the public domain or
even by removing texts from it. It benefits very few copyright
holders at the expense of universal access to literature and
knowledge.
Hart mourns the rapidly dwindling public domain:
“In the USA, no copyrights will expire from now to 2019!!! It
is even much worse in many other countries, where they
actually removed 20 years from the public domain. Books that
had been legal to publish all of a sudden were not. Friends
told me that in Italy, for example, all the great Italian
operas that had entered the public domain are no longer there.
. .
Same goes for the United Kingdom. Germany increased their
copyright term to more than 70 years back in the 1960’s. It is
a domino effect. Australia is the only country I know of that
has officially stated they will not extend the copyright term
by 20 years to more than 70.”
Hart is a visionary and a pioneer. Such vocations carry a
heavy price tag in recurrent frustration and cumulative
exhaustion. Hart may be tired, but he does not sound bitter.
He is still a fount of brilliant ideas, thought provoking
insights, exuberant optimism, and titillating predictions.
Three decades of constant battle ended in partial victory -
but Hart is as energetic as ever, straining at the next,
seemingly implausible target. “A million books to a billion
people in all corners of the globe.”
Inevitably, he sometimes feels cornered. “They” figure in many
of his statements - the cynical and avaricious establishment
that will sacrifice anything to secure the diminishing returns
of a few more copies sold. In the Project’s life time, the
period of copyright has been extended from an average of 30
years to an inane 95 years.
Moreover, no notice of renewal is required in order to enjoy
the copyright extensions.
This protectionism hinders the spread of literacy, deprives
the masses of much needed knowledge, discriminates against the
poor, and, ultimately, undermines democracy - believes Hart.
Q. Project “Gutenberg” is a self-conscious name. In which ways
is the Project comparable to Gutenberg’s revolution?
A. When I chose the name, the major factor in mind was that
publishing e-Books would change the map of literacy and
education as much as did the Gutenberg Press which reduced the
price of books to 1/400th their previous price tag. From the
equivalent of the cost of an average family farm, books became
so inexpensive that you could see a wagonload of them in the
weekend marketplace in small villages at prices that even
these people could afford.
My second choice was Project Alexandria. The major difference
is that the Alexandrians collect e-Books, while the
Gutenbergers produce e-Books.
Another way our Project compares to Gutenberg’s revolution is
that copyright laws were created to stop both.
When we only had a dozen e-Books online, the price of putting
one on a computer was about 1/400th the price of a paperback.
But obviously with 100 gigabyte drives coming down to $100,
the price of putting e-Books on computers has fallen so low as
to be literally “too cheap to meter.” Those who like to meter
everything on the cash scale are incredibly upset about
Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg is the first example of a “paradigm shift”
from “Limited Distribution” to “Unlimited Distribution”, now
touted as “The Information Age”. However, you should be aware
that this is the 4th such Information Age.
Each such phase has been stifled by making it illegal to use
new technologies to copy texts. In 1710, the Statute of Anne
copyright made it illegal for any but members of the ancient
Stationers’ Guild to use a Gutenberg Press. Then, in 1909, the
US doubled the term of all copyrights to eliminate “reprint
houses” who were using the new steam and electric powered
presses to compete with the old boy publishing network.
The third Information Age came in 1976 when the US increased
the copyright term to 75 years and eliminated the requirement
to file copyright renewals, to stifle changes brought on by
Xerox machines. In 1998, the US extended the copyright term
yet again, to 95 years, to eliminate publication via the
Internet.
Q. The concept of e-texts or e-books back in 1971 was novel.
What made you think of this particular use for the $100
million in spare computer time you were given by the
University of Illinois?
A. What allowed me to think of this particular use for
computers so long before anyone else did is the same thing
that allows every other inventor to create their inventions:
being at the right place, at the right time, with the right
background.
As Lermontov said in The Red Shoes: “Not even the greatest
magician in the world can pull a rabbit out of a hat if there
isn’t already a rabbit in it.”
I owe this background to my parents, and to my brother. I grew
up in a house full of books and electronics, so the idea of
combining the two was obviously not as great a leap as it
would have been for someone else. I repaired my Dad’s hi-fi
the first time when I was in the second grade, and was also
the kid who adjusted everyone’s TV and antennas when they were
so new everyone was scared of them.
I have always had a knack for electronics, and built and
rebuilt radios and other electronics all my life, even though
I never read an electronics book or manuals…it was just
natural.
Let me tell you a story about how the Project started:
I happened to stop at our local IGA grocery store on the way.
We were just coming up on the American Bicentennial and they
put faux parchment historical documents in with the groceries.
So, as I fumbled through my backpack for something to eat, I
found the US Declaration of Independence and had a light bulb
moment.
I thought for a while to see if I could figure out anything I
could do with the computer that would be more important than
typing in the Declaration of Independence, something that
would still be there 100 years later, but couldn’t come up
with anything, and so Project Gutenberg was born.
You have to remember that the Internet had just gone
transcontinental and this was one of the very first computers
on it. Somehow I had envisioned the Net in my mind very much
as it would become 30 years later.
I envisioned sending the Declaration of Independence to
everyone on the Net…all 100 of them…which would have
crashed the whole
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