- gutvol-d - lists.pglaf.org

Re: WIPO Online Forum on Intellectual Property
by Juhana Sadeharju 09 Jun '05

09 Jun '05

>From: Andrew Sly <sly(a)victoria.tc.ca> > >This [Berne] convention (first formulated in 1886) is the most >wide-spread international copyright agreement. > >It sets out a basic minimum copyright term of life+50. Maybe they were wrong then as well. The term should decrease nowadays. The trend today is to have the old material available. Nobody gains if the old books are out-of-print. But we can also blame the authors who gives their soul... work for life+70+. If Berne and equivalents cannot be changed, then authors should sign only contracts which does not sell their soul. Has anyone statistics how books does sell? How many years the books sell with profit? Have we asked permission to make out-of-print and still copyrighted books available? That would save the publisher the trouble. Juhana -- http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-graphics-dev for developers of open source graphics software

1 0

[Fwd: Ebook Reading device?]
by Marcello Perathoner 08 Jun '05

08 Jun '05

Anybody want to answer this one? -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Ebook Reading device? Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:11:35 +0100 From: Robert Sutherland <robsuth(a)robsuth.plus.com> To: webmaster(a)gutenberg.org Being now in retirement I lately became interested in E-books and was delighted - amazed, more like! - to discover Project Gutenberg. However, I have been very puzzled by the apparent absence of a simple portable device designed for reading downloaded e.books. All my searches on the internet and my inquiries of the trade have failed to trace one. I wonder if you can put me on track of one? The trade just assume that a lap-top or a PDA would be quite adequate, but neither is really suitable. I use a lap-top mostly but they are far bigger than is required, and are far from being as portable as I am sure a specific device could be. I have not found a PDA with a large enough screen to provide comfortable reading - indeed, even to take the kind of line-length used in PG, or if they do it would excessively reduce the print size, which begins to matter as one gets older. To anyone making any considerable use of e.books a specific device designed for the purpose would be a distinct asset. As far as I see from the internet, there used to be a few such devices available but they seem to have been dedicated to special file formats used exclusively by firms producing e.books for sale: the indications seem to be that their efforts to establish monopolies mostly failed and their devices ceased to be available in the market. Some at least were exclusive to USA anyway, which would not have helped someone like myself resident in UK. I raised this matter with one of the main UK computing magazines but they came back only with the standard view that a PDA would do, which of course it would not, being designed for quite different purposes. I have also enquired of several of the main computing retailers, none of whom has shown the slightest interest. I feel quite surprised that nothing specific is available - have I missed something in my researches? If I have, I'd be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction; but if I have not, then could PG perhaps set a spark to some manufacturer's imagination? I thought that perhaps a modern DVD portable player might be the answer - some very cheap models are becoming available - but from the specifications I have seen and the advice given by retailers they are unlikely to be able to take .txt, .rtf or .pdf files. If they did, one could simply put the e.books onto CD or DVD as data files - although slightly bigger than Captain Picard uses when at leisure in his quarters, a portable DVD player would be much more convenient to use than a laptop. I am currently trying to ascertain whether it might be possible to charge an existing model with a program to make it compatible? One just needs .txt, .rtf and .pdf. Yours sincerely, Robert Sutherland ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- Marcello Perathoner webmaster(a)gutenberg.org

3 2

Re: [gutvol-d] [Fwd: Ebook Reading device?]
by Joshua Hutchinson 08 Jun '05

08 Jun '05

Robert, You might be more pleased with the results on a PDA if you try an HTML edition of the book as opposed to the Text versions. In my experience, the simplified web browser in most PDAs is quite up to the task of formatting the text to nicely fit on a PDA screen. It is the hard return marks in the text files that cause the line length issues you've seen. NOTE: This doesn't help with those texts that don't have an HTML edition available, I realize. There are others on the list that may be better suited to answer about dedicated eBook readers (which I have heard of, but have no direct experience with). Josh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcello Perathoner" <webmaster(a)gutenberg.org> To: "Project Gutenberg volunteer discussion" <gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org> Subject: [gutvol-d] [Fwd: Ebook Reading device?] Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:29:07 +0200 > > Anybody want to answer this one? > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Ebook Reading device? > Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 21:11:35 +0100 > From: Robert Sutherland <robsuth(a)robsuth.plus.com> > To: webmaster(a)gutenberg.org > > > > Being now in retirement I lately became interested in E-books and was > delighted - amazed, more like! - to discover Project Gutenberg. However, I > have been very puzzled by the apparent absence of a simple portable device > designed for reading downloaded e.books. All my searches on the internet > and my inquiries of the trade have failed to trace one. I wonder if you can > put me on track of one? > > The trade just assume that a lap-top or a PDA would be quite adequate, but > neither is really suitable. I use a lap-top mostly but they are far bigger > than is required, and are far from being as portable as I am sure a > specific device could be. I have not found a PDA with a large enough screen > to provide comfortable reading - indeed, even to take the kind of > line-length used in PG, or if they do it would excessively reduce the print > size, which begins to matter as one gets older. To anyone making any > considerable use of e.books a specific device designed for the purpose > would be a distinct asset. > > As far as I see from the internet, there used to be a few such devices > available but they seem to have been dedicated to special file formats used > exclusively by firms producing e.books for sale: the indications seem to be > that their efforts to establish monopolies mostly failed and their devices > ceased to be available in the market. Some at least were exclusive to USA > anyway, which would not have helped someone like myself resident in UK. > > I raised this matter with one of the main UK computing magazines but they > came back only with the standard view that a PDA would do, which of course > it would not, being designed for quite different purposes. I have also > enquired of several of the main computing retailers, none of whom has shown > the slightest interest. > > I feel quite surprised that nothing specific is available - have I missed > something in my researches? If I have, I'd be very grateful if you could > point me in the right direction; but if I have not, then could PG perhaps > set a spark to some manufacturer's imagination? > > I thought that perhaps a modern DVD portable player might be the answer - > some very cheap models are becoming available - but from the specifications > I have seen and the advice given by retailers they are unlikely to be able > to take .txt, .rtf or .pdf files. If they did, one could simply put the > e.books onto CD or DVD as data files - although slightly bigger than > Captain Picard uses when at leisure in his quarters, a portable DVD player > would be much more convenient to use than a laptop. I am currently trying > to ascertain whether it might be possible to charge an existing model with > a program to make it compatible? One just needs .txt, .rtf and .pdf. > > Yours sincerely, > Robert Sutherland > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > > > > -- Marcello Perathoner > webmaster(a)gutenberg.org > > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d

3 2

Re: WIPO Online Forum on Intellectual Property
by Juhana Sadeharju 07 Jun '05

07 Jun '05

>From: Marcello Perathoner < > >Welcome to the Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information >Society, hosted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) >from June 1 to 15, 2005. What is the aim of this project? I suggest the copyright period would be changed so that each book has fixed 50 years copyright protection. Would this suggestion be seriously considered in WIPO? Or does the Disn... money talk. How about my suggestion on making anything patentable without costs so that we who develop free software could protect our intellectual property as well? All disagreements on IPs would be settled in the courts with money. Patent offices would not spend money in examining the patents. Now patent system discriminates us who don't take money from our products. Whos intellectual property WIPO is after? Who or what companies are behind the WIPO? Juhana -- http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-graphics-dev for developers of open source graphics software

3 2

Help sought for text versions of Friulan 'Dante'
by Greg Newby 03 Jun '05

03 Jun '05

Anyone feel like wrestling with file conversion? I've just put this file for download: http://pglaf.org/~gbnewby/dante.zip It contains three RTF files, plus a JPG image. I think only dante-inferno is an intact file, though. The task is to create a plain text file in ISO-8859-1 encoding, but to properly identify and save the footnotes (as endnotes). I've been messing with this in MS Word (for Mac) and a few OpenOffice variations, and just can't get it to save right. It might be that it just needs some tender loving hand-editing to create a plain text version. Please let me (& the list) know if you might be able to spend some time with this. I think the footnotes in the other two volumes (purgatorio & paradiso) are missing, and am asking the author for them. Thanks! Greg

5 8

Listening to EBooks in Text Format !!!
by rvijay07 30 May '05

30 May '05

All related documents that need to be read in this regard: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/apps.html#MM Festival Speech Synthesis System - Table of Contents http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/manual/ festival man page http://linuxcommand.org/man_pages/festival1.html "Festival is very quiet. How do I make it louder?" http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/cgi-bin/cs...val/volume.html Sharing this here for future general reference of everyone interested in this topic. Regards, Vijay _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com

1 0

Re: [gutvol-d] Technical Collection for Consideration.
by Joshua Hutchinson 30 May '05

30 May '05

What is our official stance on stuff like this? There are some pretty useful documents out there that we could probably add to the collection under the circumstances Marcello describes. Josh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcello Perathoner" <marcello(a)perathoner.de> To: "Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion" <gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org> Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] Technical Collection for Consideration. Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 13:11:28 +0200 > > Jonathan Ingram wrote: > > > Sadly the overly long length of modern copyright terms mean that we won't > > see a > > large influx of public domain computer programming material for a while. > > Many FSF books are copylefted. One I should definitely like to see in the > collection is: > > Free Software Free Society > > selected essays of > > Richard M. Stallman > > > My paper copy says: > > "Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this book > provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved on all copies." > > > -- Marcello Perathoner > webmaster(a)gutenberg.org > > _______________________________________________ > gutvol-d mailing list > gutvol-d(a)lists.pglaf.org > http://lists.pglaf.org/listinfo.cgi/gutvol-d

5 4

Re: [gutvol-d] Dear Jon and Bowerbird
by Joshua Hutchinson 29 May '05

29 May '05

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Tinsley" <jtinsley(a)pobox.com> > > How say the rest of you -- should we erase the graffiti? > Well, I think we can all agree most of the problem is one particular person. As someone who has been "dragged into a mudfight" with this person before, I know how easy it is. All of his negative qualities not-withstanding ... he is an amazingly good troll. Jon, while in this instance is posting a high noise-to-signal ratio, has on many occasions posted some very well thoughtout and useful information. While some out there may disagree with how far he wants PG to go on the meta-data front, he has some very good ideas in this area and has shown a willingness to discuss constructively. The other person in the matter has not shown any of these good qualities. I think we should ban bowerbird permanently from the list. In my opinion, the noise on this list drops to a very low level when he goes away for short periods. While no one will be surprised that I advocate banning bowerbird, I think this is something he has brought upon himself. Josh

10 20

Re: [for the graphics wizards] Cleaning up original Burton "Kama Sutra" page scans -- need advice/help
by Juhana Sadeharju 29 May '05

29 May '05

>From: Jon Noring <jon(a)noring.name> > >for free access. [For those interested, the book is the 1885 second >printing of the second edition of Sir Richard F. Burton's "Kama Sutra >of Vatsyayana".] Please do *not* make them bitonal (black and white only)!!!!!!! You could also save time and do only the color manipulation (e.g., "gamma"). Could you place all the original scannings available for me? I could place the scannings available at our site. I also would like to process the images myself before you ruin them. Use of "gamma" most likely is not the way to improve the images. I will pick up the two example images and do experimentations. Takes a few days before I mail again with results. I have earlier done this kind of automatic level blancing in which I additionally flattened the curved pages (dark near the binding). >version for direct reading. For those who will probably ask, the raw >page scans have already been uploaded to Distributed Proofreaders for >conversion to structured digital text.] Are those original 8-bit images? How to download them from DP? What are the direct links to the pages? Juhana -- http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-graphics-dev for developers of open source graphics software

3 3

Re: [gutvol-d] Listening to EBooks in Text Format !!!
by rvijay07 27 May '05

27 May '05

root@box:/home/vijay# /bin/lsmod Module Size Used by Not tainted nls_iso8859-1 2844 0 (autoclean) ppp_deflate 2936 0 (autoclean) zlib_deflate 17304 0 (autoclean) [ppp_deflate] bsd_comp 3960 0 (autoclean) ppp_async 7232 1 (autoclean) ppp_generic 22816 3 (autoclean) [ppp_deflate bsd_comp ppp_async] slhc 4560 0 (autoclean) [ppp_generic] parport_pc 25128 1 (autoclean) lp 7460 1 parport 22496 1 [parport_pc lp] autofs4 8756 1 af_packet 13544 0 agpgart 42724 0 (unused) awe_wave 155744 0 (unused) sb 7796 1 sb_lib 33518 0 [sb] uart401 6052 0 [sb_lib] sound 55244 1 [awe_wave sb_lib uart401] soundcore 3428 6 [sb_lib sound] 8139too 13768 0 mii 2240 0 [8139too] de4x5 39488 0 crc32 2816 0 [8139too de4x5] serial 52068 2 ataraid 6404 0 (unused) ieee1394 183300 0 pcmcia_core 39840 0 apm 9736 2 ide-scsi 9040 0 rtc 7004 0 (autoclean) ext3 64388 1 (autoclean) jbd 46804 1 (autoclean) [ext3] root@box:/home/vijay# and root@box:/home/vijay# modprobe soundcore root@box:/home/vijay# --- On Fri 05/27, Richard Cohen < richard(a)daijobu.co.uk > wrote: From: Richard Cohen [mailto: richard(a)daijobu.co.uk] To: rvijay07(a)myway.com Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 13:04:29 +0100 Subject: Re: [gutvol-d] Listening to EBooks in Text Format !!! OK, try<br><br># /bin/lsmod<br> _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com

1 0