- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

pdf production
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 05 Apr '06

05 Apr '06

i'm chasing down the last few details concerning production of quality .pdf from project gutenberg e-texts... (links, bookmarks, and annotations, in case anyone was wondering what might comprise "the last few details".) so i will soon finish the .pdf aspect... but i'm not sure i want to unleash this capability out into the wild for free... first, i've never been too fond of .pdf, not just for its technical flaws (which can be surmounted), but also because adobe strikes me as awfully predatory. compounding that these days is _sony_, which will be releasing a reader-machine (which uses e-ink) in the next few months, one with major support for the .pdf format. i don't care to provide sony a tool that will enable them to scarf much of the p.g. library to prop up their machine, not when p.g. itself ignores the .pdf... wholesale conversion of unformatted p.g. e-texts into quality .pdf e-books available only through the sony store is not something that i want to foster. so i'll probably hobble the capability, so it cannot be used in a "production" type of environment -- most likely by refusing to make more than one .pdf every 4 hours. unless someone can suggest a better way to handle this? i'm wide open for feedback, backchannel if you prefer... -bowerbird

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Re: Interview With Leader of Sweden's Pirate Party
by maitri venkat-ramani 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

Ahem, here's the interview itself: http://www.linuxp2p.com/forums/portal.php?article=0 On Jan 1, 2006, Rick Falkvinge founded the Pirate Party in Sweden, beginning a new era in the fight for legitimacy of P2P. Rick was tired of the MPA/IFPI lobbyers and politicians who would not listen to reason, so he resorted to taking to the streets in a battle for voters in this fall's general elections. LinuxP2P: How did you guys come up with the idea of creating a whole new political party for file-sharing and privacy? Falkvinge: Basically, because the politicians didn't listen to their voters, but to yesterday's industry interests instead, which led them to criminalize 20% of their voters (1.2 million file sharers, 5.2 million voters). There have been many good writers on the issues, which the politicians have chosen to ignore. So we figured the only way to get their attention was to go head-on in a battle for voters. LinuxP2P: What are your main goals? Falkvinge: To stir a debate about the hidden costs of copyright and patents, and to stop the big-brother society trend. This needs to be done on a European level; we view Sweden as a beachhead in this aspect. You gotta start somewhere. LinuxP2P: How do you intend to reform the copyright laws in Sweden? Falkvinge: Our goal is to reduce copyright substantially in both coverage and time. First of all, when copyright was created, there was no such thing as noncommercial copying. We want to bring it back to cover copying on commercial grounds only -- the copyright monopoly will not cover noncommercial activities at all, nor does it cover anything else than the original exact copy. For example, you would be free to sample from a piece of music and release it as a new work. Second, the protection term today is ludicrous. Copyright is a monopoly given to the creator as an incentive to create more culture. So why, then, does the monopoly last seventy years after the creator's own death? He or she is very unlikely to create more culture after his or her own demise. If you look at the industry, any investment made is usually calculated to have paid itself within a few years, say five years. We believe this is a reasonable term. That would mean that any music, movie, etc, would have five years of monopolized sales under copyright before it becomes a free-for-all, which is more than sufficient to regain any investment. Overall, today's copyright does not strike a balance between the creator's interest in regaining an investment on one hand, and society's interest in creation of culture on the other. The law is totally one-sided towards the creator's interests, preventing the spread of culture. LinuxP2P: Will you try to get the EU's software patent directive and their data retention laws to be annulled in Sweden? Falkvinge: The software patent directive was, thankfully, not passed. The data retention directive will not be implemented in Sweden if we get our way. LinuxP2P: What is your position on DRM? Falkvinge: That it should be prohibited outright. DRM is effectively media companies writing their own copyright laws, harming society and consumers. We have a parliament to write such laws, thank you very much. The equivalent would be if someone sold you a product that shut down on purpose in daylight, or outside of a particular city, or under whatever condition the manufacturer hadn't approved. We call it fraud in the cases where we can relate, so I can't believe the media industry is getting away with this. Apart from that, there have been numerous horror stories about DRM abuse. Starforce and XCP come to mind. LinuxP2P: How, if at all, will your changes in Sweden's copyright laws affect Free/Open Source Software? Falkvinge: The changes to copyright laws might not affect FOSS, but there are other provisions of our platform that will. Specifically, we will require the public sector - which is quite large in Sweden, and spends quite some money - to purchase systems in a way that does not "promote the formation or continuation of monopolies on ideas and concepts". This translates to more or less requiring FOSS, or at least more open systems than are common today. LinuxP2P: The French are proposing to implement a monthly fee to Internet subscribers that gives them the right to download music freely, but they will also impose high financial sanctions for those caught uploading. What are your opinions on this? Falkvinge: If they can't file share, what are they paying the fee for? Actually, I think this system is worse than today's system. We'd have a system where the media companies would receive a flat fee and determine what was available for download for that fee. The ink wouldn't be dry on the law before the media companies removed the newest content from download availability and put it back on the shelf, and with a fresh new revenue stream to combat piracy, we'd all be worse off. LinuxP2P: Patents provide a huge financial incentive for inventors and researchers. Won't abolishing them effectively stop innovation? Falkvinge: This is a myth. Patents today are a honeypot for inventors and researchers. However, one you've paid the ?50,000 to take part in the European patent lottery, you will find that the war chest of the multinational companies is much larger than yours, and they will effectively crush the inventor like a bug. In short, the story about striking it rich on a patent is a fairy tale. There are way too many interests out there who don't want you to get rich on that patent, and they make very sure you won't be. Besides, take a look at the high-tech gadgets around you today. Mobile phones, for example. New models are invented because people are buying the latest high-tech -- not because the inventing company can patent it. Put simply, a company that didn't spend a lot of money on innovation would quickly be out of business today. That is a much stronger incentive than being able to patent something: if you don't invent, you're dead. In such an environment, patent lawyers draw valuable resources from R&D instead of contributing to the economy. LinuxP2P: What kind of relationship do you have with the torrent tracker ThePirateBay which also operates in Sweden? Falkvinge: Some of the people in the Pirate Party have met with some of the people in the Pirate Bay. They were started independently of one another and are not formally connected, but the people involved have enjoyed the occasional beer when we meet. LinuxP2P: Apart from working to improve privacy rights and legalise file sharing, what are PiratPartiet's other goals, if you have any? Falkvinge: We have three goals: reform copyright, abolish patents, and strengthen the right to privacy. Nothing else. LinuxP2P: Do you support all piracy, such as street traders selling knock-off DVDs and even pirate cinemas? Falkvinge: We don't. We believe that copyright is unbalanced today. However, shifting it as far as selling knock-off DVDs - effectively abolishing copyright - would remove the creator's financial interest from the equation altogether. The law is about striking a balance between the creator's financial interest and society's interest of culture spread. You might want to note, though, that once the copyright has expired after five years, such activity would be totally legit. It would be no different from printing a really old book today. LinuxP2P: If file sharing was suddenly and publicly fully legalized, wouldn't everyone switch entirely to file sharing, undoing any good file sharing may do for CD and ticket sales? Falkvinge: That's exactly what the music industry said about the cassette tape, too. LinuxP2P.com appreciates Mr. Falkvinge taking the the time to participate in this interview, and wish him and his party good luck at the election. --- maitri venkat-ramani <maitriv(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > Pirates ... arrrrrrr!!! > > From /. > http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/06/04/03/1048254.shtml > Posted by Hemos on Monday April 03, @10:00AM > > CrystalFalcon writes "Linux-P2P has published an interview with Rick > Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party which is aiming to gain > entry to Swedish Parliament this fall. (The party's founding was > previously covered on Slashdot.) The party is totally for real, > totally > serious, and has seen approval ratings of 57% in some polls, with > only > four percent needed to gain seats. Its goals are to cut back > copyrights, abolish patents, and strengthen the right to privacy." > > === > > Swedish Filesharers Start 'The Piracy Party' > Posted by CmdrTaco on Tue Jan 03, '06 01:19 PM > > sp3tt writes "Tired of being called criminals, a group of Swedish > filesharers have started a new political party, The Piracy Party > (Piratpartiet in Swedish). The party wants to abolish all > intellectual > property laws, reverse the data retention directive passed by the EU > last month, and protect privacy with new laws. The party expresses no > opinion on other subjects. The Piracy Party's webpage is so far only > available in Swedish, at piratpartiet.se The party's goal is to get > into to the parliament, which requires 4% of the votes, or roughly > 225000 votes. Elections are held in September." > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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Please help archive the Katrina disaster
by Jon Noring 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

[I'm forwarding this for Brewster Kahle at the Internet Archive. If you have any Katrina-related links, please submit them as detailed below. As Brewster requests, please forward the following message to other relevant mailing lists and online forums. Jon Noring, TeBC Administrator] The Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library, needs help in finding URL's of sites and blogs that contain documents of this major disaster. Please email links to sites and pages that should be saved for future research to katrina(a)archive.org. We have worked to archive events such as 9/11 and the tsunami with the generous help of volunteers finding and sending in links. We then save these digital works for the long term and create research tools (for example: http://www.loc.gov/minerva/collect/sept11/ index.html and http://web.archive.org ). As a library, we provide free access to those wanting to learn from these events-- we can only hope that we learn some lessons from disasters such as these. Again, please send email to katrina(a)archive.org with lists of URL's you suggest should be archived relevant to the Katrina Disaster. We are also looking for a couple of volunteers that can help orchestrate the crawl. If you are interested, please send a note to katrina(a)archive.org with "volunteer" in the subject line. Please forward this message to any appropriate lists or people. Thank you. -Brewster Kahle Digital Librarian Internet Archive ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get Bzzzy! (real tools to help you find a job). Welcome to the Sweet Life. http://us.click.yahoo.com/A77XvD/vlQLAA/TtwFAA/89EolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archivists-talk/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: archivists-talk-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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Cost of 1TB Storage
by John Hagerson 03 Apr '06

03 Apr '06

Fry's Electronics is offering an Anthology Solutions 1TB solution for $649.99 through Tuesday, 4 April. Limit one per customer. I have this information from a newspaper advertisement. I checked http://www.outpost.com for the same item (SKU 4633698). They are listed for $699.99. "Call for availability."

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any graphic designers out there?
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 31 Mar '06

31 Mar '06

please help a design-challenged e-book programmer... check this out: > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/meyer/shot.html at the upper-left is a design for the title-page/cover. at the upper-right is the same thing, with coordinates, so you can tell how you'd suggest anything be moved... the upper-left design is repeated at lower-left, with an alternate design at lower-right. do you prefer it? this isn't just for this one cover, or i wouldn't bother... it's concerning how i will write the all-purpose routine for formatting covers, so i'd like to do a good job of it, since it will be for thousands and thousands of books... i noticed josh uses left-justified headers in his .tei books; do people think that looks nice? or is the old-fashioned centering still the best way to go? (i think so, but i don't want to be too inflexible, so i'm willing to consider it all.) any other suggestions -- a splash of color or what-not? -- would be welcome as well to spruce up the look of this and move it into the digital world of the 21st-century e-book... while i'm at it, here's one of the backgrounds i've been using. > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/meyer/goodbook.jpg any feedback on that would be greatly appreciated, as would a reworking of your own design. (credit granted, naturally...) and here's a nice "page" background from brewster kahle: > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/meyer/leftblank.jpg combining my gutter with the page from brewster gives us: > http://www.greatamericannovel.com/meyer/blank.html (the colors don't match up, but you get the idea here; breaking the overall image up into pieces like these might be necessary.) anyway, if this is fun for anyone out there, have at it... -bowerbird

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rdfterms
by Chris Shepard 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

Hi, The catalog.rdf file shows the pgterms namespace as living at http://www.gutenberg.org/rdfterms, but it's not there. (i.e., 404) Could someone send me the proper URL? Many thanks. "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." -- E. W. Dijkstra __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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RE: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality
by Joshua Hutchinson 30 Mar '06

30 Mar '06

> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brent Gueth" <creeva(a)gmail.com> > > Now I'm not going to get in the middle of this on going feud, but what > readers do we have for each format? The TEI formats are listed there but > what do you use to read them so you do not see all the markup encoding. > Firefox shows the markup when you open the file. Notepad shows the markup > (to be expected). MS Word just crashes upon opening because it says that > there are problems with the contents. > Good question, Brent. The answer is that TEI is not really meant to be read by humans (just as HTML source code is not really meant to be read by humans). The great thing about those TEI docs is that I only produced 1 file (the TEI document) and then a server automatically generated the ASCII, HTML and PDF formats. I didn't have to manually fiddle with multiple files. The TEI file is a text file, so technically you CAN read it in Notepad (or any text editor of your choice) but it won't be all that pretty. Hopefully, the resulting files *from* it will be pretty, though. The reason TEI is nice for this is that it provides a consistent markup method that is fairly easy for a computer to manipulate to "output" formats. if you have any further questions, fire away. I'll be happy to try to answer them. Josh

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re: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality
by Bowerbird＠aol.com 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

joshua said: > PGDP *has* produced some XML based books. > Here is a short list of some of them > (there are at least a few more, but this > is a list I was able to put together quickly). well yes, and you are to be commended, josh, for your work in actually doing some markup. as should marcello for the groundwork he has done, and jim tinsley for setting a sensible adoption policy (which is very important and not as easy as it looks). without you three, the little progress that _has_ been made would not have been accomplished. and i wish you the best in your future efforts. > I'd also like to point out that this *partial* list > is still far more than bowerbird's zml efforts. well, you might want to enjoy that "lead" as much as possible while you still can... :+) *** as long-time subscribers know, we've already done the discussion thing on this topic for long enough, it's time for pudding now, so i'll limit my replies to: 1) jon, that was a lot of verbiage, but i don't think you said anything of substance, so no reply for you. 2) holden, i think you mischaracterized my aims, since i'm not merely "reworking" old e-texts but laying out a workflow to handle new ones as well, both digitized paper-books and "born-digital" ones. (my next few examples will be in the latter category.) 3) marcello, i don't know if it's your italian "nature" or your german "nurture", but you certainly seem to have a penchant for disinformation and "the big lie". i always feel slimed after i read one of your posts. ick! anyway, folks, no need to have this discussion again. anyone who wants to see it can go read the archives. it's pudding time now -- show proof, or go home... -bowerbird

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RE: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality
by Joshua Hutchinson 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

We do have tools and documentation on the website, but I'll admit there is not explanation link on the download page. Here is a link to the TEI tools and documentation. http://pgtei.pglaf.org/marcello/0.4/ Josh > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brent Gueth" <creeva(a)gmail.com> > To: "'Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion'" <gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org> > Subject: RE: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality > Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:45:38 -0500 > > > If it is supposed to be machine readable and the tools are not released with > a method of quickly editing them or a description on how they are usable to > the community, why are they posted on the web site. I would think this > would lead to confusion to people that are privy to this mailing list and > the inside discussion. > > This isn't an argument for or against any format, but to have something > customer facing (you don't sell anything but eyeballs are your customers and > proof of the work you are doing) you should have a customer facing reason or > explanation to have them there. Whether it be the TEI format or the ZML > format or an XYZ format; there should be clear instructions of what the > format is and how it is handled if it is launched on the site. > > > HTML, TXT, and PDF are considered ubiquitous in the internet age, but you > have the plucker format and an explanation of what it is. I would also > have assumed when the first plucker texts were launched there was an > explanation of what the format is and hopefully the little html link next to > the download explaining what it is was there at launch. To lessen doubt > that consumers are missing something to view these texts there should be a > link explaining what TEI is. > > -----Original Message----- > From: gutvol-d-bounces(a)lists.pglaf.org > [mailto:gutvol-d-bounces@lists.pglaf.org] On Behalf Of Joshua Hutchinson > Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 11:42 AM > To: Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion > Subject: RE: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Brent Gueth" <creeva(a)gmail.com> > > > > Now I'm not going to get in the middle of this on going feud, but what > > readers do we have for each format? The TEI formats are listed there but > > what do you use to read them so you do not see all the markup encoding. > > Firefox shows the markup when you open the file. Notepad shows the > markup > > (to be expected). MS Word just crashes upon opening because it says that > > there are problems with the contents. > > > > Good question, Brent. > > The answer is that TEI is not really meant to be read by humans (just as > HTML source code is not really meant to be read by humans). > > The great thing about those TEI docs is that I only produced 1 file (the TEI > document) and then a server automatically generated the ASCII, HTML and PDF > formats. I didn't have to manually fiddle with multiple files. > > The TEI file is a text file, so technically you CAN read it in Notepad (or > any text editor of your choice) but it won't be all that pretty. Hopefully, > the resulting files *from* it will be pretty, though. > > The reason TEI is nice for this is that it provides a consistent markup > method that is fairly easy for a computer to manipulate to "output" formats. > > if you have any further questions, fire away. I'll be happy to try to > answer them. > > Josh > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d > > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d >

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re: [gutvol-d] another dose of reality
by Joshua Hutchinson 29 Mar '06

29 Mar '06

> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Holden McGroin" <holden.mcgroin(a)dsl.pipex.com> > > The flaw in your argument, I find, is your suggestion that since PG's > XML teams have so far failed to produce any output, XML must be a bad > strategy for PG. Your ZML-based strategy has brought forth results and > so is better. > PGDP *has* produced some XML based books. Here is a short list of some of them (there are at least a few more, but this is a list I was able to put together quickly). I'd also like to point out that this *partial* list is still far more than bowerbird's zml efforts. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16697 - Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16939 - Gems of Divine Mysteries by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16940 - Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16941 - The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16983 - The Kitáb-i-Íqán by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16523 - The Kitáb-i-Aqdas by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16984 - Prayers and Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16985 - The Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16986 - The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17309 - The Summons of the Lord of Hosts by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17310 - Tablets of Baháulláh Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas by Bahá'u'lláh http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15697 - True Stories of History and Biography by Nathaniel Hawthorne JHutch

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