On Mon, Jul 18, 2005 at 10:22:39PM +0200, Jeroen Hellingman (Mailing List Account) wrote:
I am almost finishing the book Unknown Mexico, by Carl Lumholtz (1851-1922), published in 1902-3. A very nice anthropolical book with hunderds of nice illustrations, several in color. The curious thing is that it is public domain everywhere, except for Mexico, which extended copyrights to a ridiculous life+100 years. Copies in antiquarian shops costs over $2000, if available at all. (A 1987 Dover reprint can sometimes be found for about $100)
Can we use this fact to protest against this stupidity some how, for example, releasing it with a note, in both English and Spanish:
NOT FOR MEXICANS
THIS BOOK IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD IN MEXICO ONLY
No, we don't want to discriminate against Mexicans, but the Mexican government does! In July 2003, Mexico extended its copyrights to last 100 years after the death of the author. This makes Mexico the only country in the world (besides Cote d'Ivoire) where downloading this book is illegal. Mexicans please contact to your parliament to complain about this ridiculous act that locks Mexicans from their cultural heritage.
Hi, Jeroen. Thanks for thinking to protect folks outside of the US, but this type of statement is something we don't need or want. As you see in our license & small print at http://gutenberg.org/license , we only ever talk about public domain status in the US. We do not have the time or expertise to extend our copyright research beyond the US (we meaning PG of US, in this case). To do so for a particular item might imply our willingness to do it for all items, in all countries -- something we definitely won't/can't do. Yes, I know Peter Pan is an exception (in more ways than one). Yes, I know non-US mirrors might be taking risks. I hope this makes sense to you. -- Greg