I wouldn't say MOST relaxed, there are a few African countries that take that prize, but we're good for several reasons: - physical proxmity to the US provides logistical and $ savings for volunteers; - part of the Anglo-American law world; we can, for now, stand as a bulwark against the extensionists, and the presence of such a library, will, if large enough, allow for the mobilization of a defence of the public domain; - English- and French-speaking; can make liaisons and bridges with the longer-life-plus-term UK and Ireland as well as the wierd-term US (there are thousands of PD books under the pre-1923 rule in the US that are NOT PD in life+ countries, including Canada; - large immigrant communities, and "heritage language" communities, among whose numbers we can recruit to help give the collection more internationality; - excellent net.infrastructure, esp. as compared to those countries with even less copyright; - several PD and digital library initiatives already in progress; - some potential corporate contributors; - already a strong base of PG/DP support, with one of the largest non- US contingents already involved. We can build a life+/CanCon version, and hopefully, by growing incrementally as PGDP I has, do so without destabilizing the Mothership. DRAWBACK: - Collective copyright administration; the literary, artistic and musical collective agencies will watch us like hawks. Scratch that; VULTURES. Which is why we have to have a failsafe clearance mechanism. I've got as good a knowledge of Canadian CR law, esp. as pertains to the undefined, in Canadian law, expression "public domain", as any non- lawyer does, and I've volunteered to help with the clearances. So, I repeat the call: Where are the tech people who can make this happen, and sooner rather than later? I'd start processing titles from Project Gutenberg Mothership according to their Life+50 eligibility as soon as the site is in place. We need a friendly host. ----- Original Message -----
From Jonathan Ingram <jonathan_ingram@yahoo.com> Date Thu, 6 Jan 2005 09:55:52 -0800 (PST) To Project Gutenberg Volunteer Discussion <gutvol-d@lists.pglaf.org> Subject Re: [gutvol-d] PG-50/70?
We need a centralised PGUS-style storage system for life+X books that can be easily mirrored in other life+X countries, and that should preferably be based in the country with the most relaxed laws -- Canada. -- Jon Ingram