Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter REMINDER: We still need a probate lawyer!!! A famous author wants to will us his entire works!!! The Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter--Jan. 21, 2010 eBooks Readable By Both Humans And Computers Since 1971 35 Months to The End of the World Via Mayan Calendaring on December 21, 2012 [some now saying October 11, 2011] Leaving 2 years 11 months, 11 1/3 seasons or 35 months. Not to worry, I will still make long range predictions, such as that there will be affordable petabytes [2021], and enough eBooks to fill an entire petabyte around the same time. HEADLINE NEWS BIG TROUBLE IN TERABYTEVILLE! BIG PORTABLE POCKET USB DRIVE RECALL! As I mentioned last month, the new pocket USB terabytes came out last month, but apparently there has been some huge problem with this, and I not only have not managed to BUY one of these, I haven't even managed to SEE one! I did get in touch with the Western Digital techies and they did admit, after a little delay, that the drive is no longer for sale, and I'm hardly sure it ever ways on more than a very few days. This would explain why ALL of the 89 hits I got just in the week before had vanished when I wrote about this. The results: Not only is the $200 terabyte pocket USB drive not out, but apparently this has also driven up the price of the other larger pocket drives, though apparently not quite all of them, as I have seen the smaller ones at the old prices still on the shelf. I'm not going to name names on places to buy, but the more upscale places are quick to push their prices up and slow to bring them down and the cheaper places seem to be more consistent on these. APPLE SEEMS READY TO ANNOUNCE EREADER/TABLET If you are an Apple watcher you know that they are very secretive about their announcements, yet this time they have made it pretty obvious that something is coming in the next week and should be on the market in March. Invitations have gone out for a major press conference, and Apple seems to have ordered massive quanties of the parts required to build such a gizmo. However, unless it really has outrageous bells/whistles on the order of iPods and iPhones it probably won't see the same kind of reception, as Apple does not sell what we call "computers" for under $999, and I'm betting the price will be a factor. However, the iPhone trendiness overcame this hurdle when they were $600 and required a contract commitment, to boot, so you never know. In Our Own News Bin Project Gutenberg should be releasing the 26,00th eBook in English about the time you are reading this: http://www.gutenberg.org FARTHER INTO THE FUTURE As predicted: a year from now, in 2011, New York Times will start charging a flat fee to anyone who reads more than a minimum number of articles at nytimes.com Watch out as the entire "Information Age" becomes quite literally "The New Digital Divide" as everything costs, as much as the market will bear. As always with such things, no details were available-- not the price, not the minimal free number, or and kind of guarantee that either number will not change sooner, rather than later, after it all begins. U.S. COPYRIGHT EXTENSIONS Can anything be done to stop the next U.S. extension? or If not stop them, at least publicize them a little? Suggestions are more than welcome. I should add that this is probably a losing battle even if it looks as if we are winning. Here's why: When the last Australian Copyright Act was discussed in Parliament, they passed a resolution stating they would NOT extend copyrights. Really. However, just three years later, under economic warfare from, shall we just say, outside sources, they crumbled to the pressure and gave in. The Canadian Parliament is currently in that position-- and while some tell me they have enough signatures from those against any extensions, I will bet you lunch that they, too, crumble before it is over. I would gladly lose every one of those wagers!!! Further Information As you may already know, any time the copyrights in the characters Winnie the Pooh [1926], or The Mouse [1928], start coming close to expiration The U.S. Congress will be sure to start a very quiet frenzy of copyright bills that are designed to go into effect before anything can happen to those two copyrights. As I understand it, Disney(R) made a huge lobby effort, successful, to create the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act; paid as a result an additional $200 million for the right to another 20 years of Winnie the Pooh, and still made the fabled laughing trip to the bank as a result, since the effective date of 1978. As a result I have to imagine their sales of The Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, etc., must have been predicted to be so terribly large as to devour Avatar's gross. Given that next bill passed right in the middle of what must have been the busiest day in Congress for the last few decades, the impeachment of President Clinton, this means we should expect something of equal secrecy quite soon, as the current copyright extension runs out 2018. Usually they would make an effort to pass the new one a session or two early, such as in 2016, but given that a snag or two has hit before, we should probably look out starting in 2015, though it will be hard to see. Why? Even during the election just before the last extension I went to ask televised press conference questions on a new U.S. Copyright Act I had heard about, but candidate responses were uniform. . ."I know nothing." I would have to expect that even if the big anchors ask the same question in 2015 they will get that answer. Or non-answer.
From what I have heard there is an ever larger movement to keep everything copyrighted permanently, and to make all media as pay-per-view as possible, to the points of making all broadcast television pay-per-view on a first viewing premise [except public stations].
We are very likely to see a dissolving out boundaries-- cable products showing up on network television and the opposite direction as well. What else CAN we expect when Comcast cable has been the allowed buyer of NBC? If you think programming won't leak over: Consider what happened when Disney took over ABC. Not only did Disney flood ABC with their own programmed output, but they killed off the best of all cartoons. Anyone remember Reboot? I can put you in touch with many copyright experts, and I fear that all of them underestimate the power working to make copyright permanent, in spite of the fact words "limited time" are the U.s. Constitution's description. However, the U.s. Supreme Court decided that limited is really unlimited in "Eldred v Ashcroft." Older News Welcome To Our Newest PG Mirror. . .In Africa!!! Continent: Africa Nation: Namibia Location: Windhoek Provider: Polytechnic of Namibia Url: http://gutenberg.polytechnic.edu.na Url: http://ftp.polytechnic.edu.na/pub/gutenberg The mirror is updated thrice daily. PROJECT GUTENBERG TAG CLOUD We invite interested persons to visit a tag cloud visualization and search system at www.bookdownloadlibrary.com This is updated weekly, from the Project Gutenberg catalog. iPHONE SOUGHT Project Gutenberg is seeking donation of an iPhone, and perhaps other modern cell phones and eBook readers. We are working on some new versions of content at www.gutenberg.org These need to work, including in Europe , but without having a paid cell phone plan. In other words, they need to be unlocked or unlockable. We are particularly interested in devices that have built-in WiFi, so they can access content at www.gutenberg.org without using the cellular network at all. Project Gutenberg is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization in the US. Our All Time Hottest Requests!!!!!!! FLASH RAM I am looking for the earliest flash RAM possible. The ideal piece around which to center this collection is one of the 8 megabyte USBs. The very earliest were PCMCIA cards, such as used for the Poqet computer, etc. The earliest USB flash drives were DisgoDizgo, M-Systems and these were OEMed by IBM, HP, etc. They are particular in a recognizable fashion because their snapon connectors resemble the connectors of jigsaw puzzles. We received two examples of RAM actually labeled "Flash," for the H-P 95 pocket DOS machine from 1991, and a sample of Fairchild bubble memory, as well, from down under. Thank you, Mate! POWERPOINT We need someone who can do PowerPoint illustrations. One in particular, building a 3-D box of 1,000 dominoes. Additional Newsletter Services In addition, we will provide the PG Canada Newsletter and totals from PG of Australia, Europe, PrePrints, etc. These totals do NOT include 75,000+ at http://www.gutenberg.cc Where there are eBooks representing over 100 languages. The Project Gutenberg Statistical Report [As of about noon Central Daylight Time] Various totals from the ~30,000 at http://www.gutenberg.org and our other Project Gutenberg Sites Week up to the 21st: day | cnt ----------------+----- Thu 2010-01-14 | 8 Fri 2010-01-15 | 13 Sat 2010-01-16 | 16 Sun 2010-01-17 | 8 Mon 2010-01-18 | 12 Tue 2010-01-19 | 5 Wed 2010-01-20 | 11 Previous Month day | cnt ----------------+----- Mon 2009-12-14 | 11 Tue 2009-12-15 | 4 Wed 2009-12-16 | 4 Thu 2009-12-17 | 10 Fri 2009-12-18 | 7 Sat 2009-12-19 | 7 Sun 2009-12-20 | 9 Previous month: day | cnt ----------------+----- Sat 2009-11-14 | 6 Sun 2009-11-15 | 4 Mon 2009-11-16 | 6 Tue 2009-11-17 | 9 Wed 2009-11-18 | 3 Thu 2009-11-19 | 6 Fri 2009-11-20 | 5 Thanks to Marcello Perathoner! /// Here are the current language totals for languages with 200 or more eBooks. Grand total for today: 30935 25995 English en 1547 French fr 628 German de 518 Finnish fi 459 Dutch nl 405 Chinese zh 391 Portuguese pt 274 Spanish es 230 Italian it Compared to last month: Grand total 25757 English en 1520 French fr 618 German de 515 Finnish fi 453 Dutch nl 405 Chinese zh 376 Portuguese pt 270 Spanish es 220 Italian it Compared to previous month's: Grand total for today: 30399 25587 English en 1498 French fr 614 German de 515 Finnish fi 451 Dutch nl 404 Chinese zh 371 Portuguese pt 268 Spanish es 218 Italian it Previous increases: +214 +205 +254 +281 +294 +287 All Reported Languges Not counting PrePrints, Canada, Australia, PG Europe Thanks to Greg Newby! /// And From Project Gutenberg Sites Worldwide 30,935 up from 30,613 up 322 PG General Automated Count 1,834 up from 1,830 up 4 PG of Australia 680 up from 664 up 16 PG of Europe 2,008 -- 2,008 up 0 PG PrePrints, Reserved [42?] 462 up from 436 up 26 PG of Canada Posted #400 on October 10 July: 14 (Title 349 to 362) August: 16 (Titles 363 to 378) September: 17 (Titles 379 to 395) October: 13 (Titles 396 to 408) November: 9 [up to November 21] December: 19[up to December 21] ====== 35,919 up from 35,551 up 368 Last month: 35,551 up 240 [Not including Canada's illustrations] 35,311 up 235 [Including correcting above estimate by 2] Note There are perhaps 100 eBooks not listed here that are already in circulation from Project Gutenberg. Note PG Canada includes English, French, and Italian. /// Here is how we ended 2009 day | cnt ----------------+----- Wed 2009-12-30 | 9 Thu 2009-12-31 | 12 Fri 2010-01-01 | 6 Sat 2010-01-02 | 10 Sun 2010-01-03 | 2 Mon 2010-01-04 | 21 Tue 2010-01-05 | 5 Weekly Total 65 Grand total for today: 30761 from automated in house counter 25866 English en 1531 French fr 625 German de 517 Finnish fi 455 Dutch nl 405 Chinese zh 384 Portuguese pt 270 Spanish es 225 Italian it etc. 30,761 Up 3,145 From 27,616 PG General Automated Count 1,830 Up 104 From 1,726 Project Gutenberg of Australia 675 Up 121 From 554 Project Gutenberg of Europe 468 Up 243 From 225 Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated] 2,008 DN 423 From 2,431 PrePrints [Subtracted 307 Chinese eBooks] ====== ====== 35,742 Up 3,190 From 32,552 Grand Total [Counting subtractions] 9.825 eBooks Per Day 68.773 eBooks Per Week 297.850 eBooks Per Month /// Here is how we ended 2008 27,616 PG General Automated Count 1,726 Project Gutenberg of Australia 554 Project Gutenberg of Europe 225 Project Gutenberg of Canada [Estimated] [202 up to December, no current report] 2,431 PrePrints [Counting the 307 Chinese eBooks +111] ====== ====== 32,552 Grand Total [Counting those PrePrints] Here is how we ended 2007 The combined PG projects had produced a total of 26,161 titles. The most number of books posted... ...in one day was 65 on the 26th December ...in one week was 151 in Week 18 (week ending 9th May) ...in one month was 477 in November We averaged 338 per month [Over 4,000 for the year] 78 per week 11.13 per day 99 titles were newly REposted to the new filing system, bringing us almost to the 2,000 mark. Here is a small selection of project milestones; TOTAL Original Project Gutenberg eBooks equals about the number of books in the average U.S. public library 32,500 on 20082121 [Counting the 307 Chinese Preprints] [And presuming 3 after official count] 32,000 on Calculating 31,500 on 20081021 [not an error, 1,777 PrePrints] 30,000 on 20081021 29,500 on 20080919 29,000 ~~ Calculating 28,500 ~~ Calculating 28,000 ~~ 20080516 27,500 on 20080405 27,000 ~~ 20080229 26,500 on 20080126 26,000 on 20071224 25,000 on 20071012 24,000 on 20070710 23,000 on 20070415 PG-AU 1,700 on 20081010 1,600 on 20080208 1,500 on 20070407 PG Canada 175 on 20080930 100 on 20080325 110 on 20080417 /// Many thanks to all who have helped us reach our 39th year! Michael S. Hart Founder Project Gutenberg