E-books and e-publishing by Samuel Vaknin (summer reading list txt) 📖

copyright judgments of

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