[PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa

Darryl Moore darryl at moores.ca
Sat Dec 4 08:36:22 PST 2004


Hello Vasa, welcome.

I'm a newcomer as well. I see PG Canada both as a useful tool for 
fighting wrong headed copyright reforms and as an extremely valuable 
social institution in it's own right. In fact the former is true only 
because the latter is!

I believe PG Canada becoming a registered charity will improve both its 
ability to deliver its core service and its respectability when 
commenting on pending legislation.

Your strategy of using a for profit corporation is interesting, however 
unless you can show significant lost income you will have a difficult 
uphill battle. Additionally there is no Charter right to a profit. There 
is however a NAFTA one. You might consider making your company an 
American entity. Then you would be able to sue for expropriation under 
the terms of NAFTA in a way that you could not as a Canadian company. 
But again, you'd have to show some significant lost profits.

Best of luck to you.

cheers,
darryl


Michael Lockey wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> Unaware of this list, I've been doing my own private plotting, and would 
> like to run my thoughts past you.  (This comes with the standard 
> Canadian Disclaimer about not stepping on feet, embarrassment at being 
> egotistical enough to make suggestions, etc., etc., etc)
> 
> I've been proofreading and mentoring at DP-INT and -EU for 16 months or 
> so, and have shared many of the fears and uncertainties about the future 
> of Public Domain.
> 
> It is interesting and frightening to see how one (relatively) small 
> country can unilaterally change Copyright, then cajole their 'friends' 
> until a global result is achieved, despite the opposition of most.  (I 
> note parentherically that most of the world is Life+50.)
> 
> I have, consequently, incorporated Distributed Proofreaders of Canada as 
> a for profit concern; I also own dp50.net.  (Quite frankly, I don't 
> think we should be jingoistic in any of our endeavours.)
> 
> I don't think that Disney Corporation- or even Margaret Atwood, God help 
> us!- are ameniable to the rights of humanity, or such: I think we must 
> fight them on their grounds: money, control, and power.
> 
> Which is why DP-CAN is a for-profit operation.  (Remember that a 
> corporation may give away any amount of its profit.)  To download a work 
> from DP-CAN (www.dp50.net) will cost $1/download, payable, by the 
> downloader, to any registered or non-registered operation or individual, 
> as a charitable donation.  In this way, DP-CAN will never directly 
> receive any money, though both a gross and net income may be 
> established.  If, then, the government tries to reprivatize materials 
> currently in PD, we will suffer a loss and be able to sue for damages.  
> My lawyer and I are prepared to go to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
> 
> Where I, personally, want to be challenging is by claiming, (as our 
> charter does), rights of use for any material- globally- that is 
> currently in the Public Domain in Canada.  (As, for example, an 
> individual or corporation may claim mineral rights without doing any 
> work on them for up to 15 years.)
> 
> Anyway- that's what I've been working on.  My sites are not yet viable: 
> I'm working alone, so far.  Given the activities going on here, maybe 
> I'll need to change some directions.  But I've structured this to FIGHT: 
> and fight I will.  Hence the Company's Motto:
> 
> THE BOOK STOPS HERE
> 
> 
> Cheers, Vasa (Michael Lockey)
> _______________________________________________
> Project Gutenberg of Canada
> Website: http://www.projectgutenberg.ca/
> List: pgcanada at lists.pglaf.org
> Archives: http://lists.pglaf.org/private.cgi/pgcanada/
> 



More information about the PGCanada mailing list