December 2004 - PGCanada - lists.pglaf.org

Re: [PGCanada] Movement?
by Wallace J.McLean 10 Dec '04

10 Dec '04

----- Original Message ----- From: Carlo Traverso <traverso(a)dm.unipi.it> > You might consider to cooperate with PG-EUROPA, that is located in > Serbia, under life+50 rules. They plan starting in a few days. > Contact Zoran Stefanovic <zstefanovic(a)rastko.net> Carlo, a big grazie for the heads-up on the Serbian effort. Zoran, would you be interested in at least lurking on the pgcanada list, or otherwise keeping me (or us) up to speed as to what you are doing in those last remaining islands[A] of life+50 in Europe? Hvala! [Footnote A: Actually, I've been doing some interesting research on the breakdown, which countries are life+70 or more, which are life+50 or less. The life+70 club is actually barely 20% of the world's population, and that's counting some countries which have promised, but not yet actually legislated, life+70. Life+50 is about 55%, and counting India, with its eccentric life+60, and the few countries with shorter terms, 2/3 of the world lives -- and creates -- with less than life+70 years of copyright. The international standard is not, despite what the propogandists will have you believe, life+70.]

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Movement?
by Wallace J.McLean 10 Dec '04

10 Dec '04

So... how quickly can we establish a public domain e-library, operating under Canadian copyright rules, on Canadian soil? I guess 2004 is out... how soon into 2005 can we do it? What are the first steps? I will foolishly volunteer to do CR clearances for existing PG texts under Canuckistan CR law. How do we start processing new works that are eligible under Canadian rules, esp. those that aren't under PG/US rules? I'm not a techie, just an idea guy. Techies? End of January? I have some other things to say, but again: openly-archived lists. I'm not going to draw fire from enemies of the public domain, not just yet.

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Re: [PGCanada] Copyright revision....
by Wallace J.McLean 08 Dec '04

08 Dec '04

----- Original Message ----- From: Russell McOrmond <russell(a)flora.ca> Date: Wednesday, December 8, 2004 5:55 pm Subject: [PGCanada] Copyright revision.... > I guess I worry if we have too many forums with overlapping work > thatless will get done than if we kept to project-based forums. The process of deciding this-topic-belongs-in-this-forum is, in itself, work. Too much structure is itself a time-waster. Real-life conversations are allowed to meander; I have no objections to on-line ones doing the same, within reason. Projects Gutenberg are tied at the waist to copyright issues; let's not try to divorce the topics. I think we can all walk and chew gum at the same time. That being said, yes, I second the plug for PG-ers who are interested in CR issues to join the DCC or other lists.

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More Copyright Bias
by Michael Hart 08 Dec '04

08 Dec '04

BRITISH PROGRAM TEACHES SCHOOLCHILDREN ABOUT COPYRIGHT British Music Rights (BMR), a group that represents songwriters and composers, is sponsoring a program to educate British schoolchildren between the ages of 11 and 14 about copyright and music piracy. The group has put together education packs that include lessons about copyright, royalties, and downloading music on the Internet, as well as how these issues affect the creation of original work. Music piracy in the United Kingdom is blamed for a steady decline in recent years in CD sales and for significant financial losses to recording companies and to artists and songwriters. In addition to limiting copyright violations, the education packs, which have been requested by more than 1,600 schools, are designed to prepare children for possible careers in the music industry. Guy Chambers, one of the songwriters who has publicly supported the BMR campaign, said the education packs will help shield young people who might pursue a career in the music industry from "unscrupulous" individuals. BBC, 30 November 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4055753.stm

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Public Domain Loses Again!
by Michael Hart 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

JUDGE REJECTS COPYRIGHT CHALLENGE A federal judge has rejected a challenge to several parts of copyright law that plaintiffs in the case said unnecessarily keep certain works out of the public domain. The nonprofit Internet Archive and the Prelinger Archives argued that so-called orphan works--books that are out of print, old films, and academic articles without significant commercial value--should be easier to archive and make publicly available. At issue in the case was the plaintiffs' contention that current law fundamentally alters the scope of copyright because it does not require owners of works to apply for copyright protection, instead granting protection irrespective of whether it is sought. The judge in the case disagreed, issuing her ruling without hearing arguments. Jennifer S. Granick, executive director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, which was involved on behalf of the plaintiffs, said the judge's ruling was improper and that the plaintiffs would appeal. Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 November 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/11/2004113003n.htm

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Public Domain Loses Again!
by Michael Hart 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

JUDGE REJECTS COPYRIGHT CHALLENGE A federal judge has rejected a challenge to several parts of copyright law that plaintiffs in the case said unnecessarily keep certain works out of the public domain. The nonprofit Internet Archive and the Prelinger Archives argued that so-called orphan works--books that are out of print, old films, and academic articles without significant commercial value--should be easier to archive and make publicly available. At issue in the case was the plaintiffs' contention that current law fundamentally alters the scope of copyright because it does not require owners of works to apply for copyright protection, instead granting protection irrespective of whether it is sought. The judge in the case disagreed, issuing her ruling without hearing arguments. Jennifer S. Granick, executive director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, which was involved on behalf of the plaintiffs, said the judge's ruling was improper and that the plaintiffs would appeal. Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 November 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/11/2004113003n.htm

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Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa
by Wallace J.McLean 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

> If you don't think this kind of thing has staying power, > just look into the root of the word "gerrymander". . . . I'm all too familiar with that one. And I've shocked a good number of politically-interested people outside the US, with single-member electoral regimes, when I show them the process, and the outcomes, of the Congressional redistricting regimes in most of the States.

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Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa
by Wallace J.McLean 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Hart <hart(a)pglaf.org> Date: Sunday, December 5, 2004 3:58 pm Subject: Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa > Mickey Rodent? > > Protected by satire laws? You know, a lot of our supposed creator's rights groups want our CR law "harmonized" with the US.... yet youse have a "parody and pastiche" exemption to infringement... we don't.

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Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa
by Wallace J.McLean 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

> I don't think the courts will EVER make more than the SLIGHTEST token > decisions on behalf of the public domain, nor will the lawmakers, > nor will the executive branch. . .after all, the last two US > extensionswere signed by Democrat Presidents. . . . That's probably true of the US courts, and unfortunately (and for what it's worth) we don't have a constitutional guarantee of a public domain in Canada. On the other hand, our courts have been very generous on the fair use and other metes and bounds to the scope of copyright.

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!@!!@!Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa (fwd)
by Michael Hart 05 Dec '04

05 Dec '04

And to this one. . . . ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2004 12:19:01 -0500 From: Wallace J.McLean <ag737(a)freenet.carleton.ca> Reply-To: Project Gutenberg of Canada <pgcanada(a)lists.pglaf.org> To: pgcanada(a)lists.pglaf.org Subject: Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Hart <hart(a)pglaf.org> Date: Saturday, December 4, 2004 11:57 am Subject: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa > They want a "piece of the action" AND "editorial control" over > everything,and the governments don't resist because they get more > taxes this way. In Canada, there's a good reason for the governments to resist: a lot of that "more taxes" will just have to go straight back into the publicly-funded education system (and government administrations, and everyone else in the public sector who's getting dinged by the collectives) to pay for that "more copyright". > Not to mention that the publishers' cartels are among the longest > standing lobbiests in the history of governments. That's very interesting... Every media industry -- every single one -- starts out as copyright "pirates", and ends up as copyright hardasses. I've been doing a lot of research using the various digital newspaper sites that are out there, and back in the 19th century, papers throughout the world gleefully, and openly, pilfered each other's content. Manually at first, then the practice exploded with telegraph lines, and went through the roof when the submarine cables linked the continents. "The Timbucktoo Desert Weekly reports that..." would report the Des Moines Mudflats, and proceed to reproduce the article verbatim. My researches keep finding the same article on a given subject reproduced in some of the most unlikely cities. It's wonderful: if the OCR, usually of poor quality, doesn't pick up the original article in the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Daily Citizen, it might find a reference or a pirated full-text version in the Boulder, Colorado, Bee. The lack of respect for copyright back then, and the lack of copyright in the work now, means that the people (me!) who still have a human or intellectual interest in that work can actually find the damn thing. This practice was, in my opinion, critical to the history of the newspaper. It provided them with the content to generate reader interest and make the most out-of-the-way places feel connected to the world. Eventually, of course, it was formalized as wire services and syndicates and so on, and once that happened the trend in newspapers moved away from their status as "users" and they became "creators" lobbying for more more more more more more and more protection. > However, I hope this is something that will be kept on the DP side > of things > and not spill over into the PG side, as I have sincere > reservations about > the idea of going to court in this kind of environment. The other thing I'd worry about with this is the closure-of-the-commons idea and the chill it could have on the users. Paper of Record, bless 'em; they have revived a valuable body of content, make this licensing claim: "You are licensed to use the Content for personal or professional research, and may download Content only as search results relevant to that research. Resale of a work or database or portion thereof, except as specific results relevant to specific research for an individual, is prohibited. On line or other republication of Content is prohibited except as unique data elements which are part of a unique family history or genealogy. Violation of this License may result in immediate termination of your membership and may result in legal action for injunction, damages or both. You may use access software provided on POR only while on line and may not download, copy, reuse or distribute that software, except where it is clearly stated in connection with software that it is made available for offline use and a license for that use is provided in connection with that software." There's a serious violation of "nemo dat" going on here: if the underlying work is public domain, anyone can reproduce it in any way they so choose, on line or otherwise. PoR has, at best, a "thin" copyright in its PDF files, and no right to estop anyone from using the underlying work, since they have no property right in the work itself. There's little point in reviving defunct works if a chill is placed on their use, expressly or implicitly. _______________________________________________ Project Gutenberg of Canada Website: http://www.projectgutenberg.ca/ List: pgcanada(a)lists.pglaf.org Archives: http://lists.pglaf.org/private.cgi/pgcanada/

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