Literature Wants to be Free! Greg Newby Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

Presentation Overview About your narrator Project Gutenberg overview Project Gutenberg of Europe What is the public domain? What is copyright? The Public Domain is in Trouble What you can do

Who is this guy? Learned about eBooks in 1998, when a friend sent Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by email Involved with Project Gutenberg (PG) since 1992 (while at the U. Illinois) Produced several eBooks; ran FTP sites, mailing lists; became stand-in production coordinator when PG’s founder Michael Hart (MH) was out of town In 2001, volunteered as the first director and CEO of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (PGLAF)

Project Gutenberg: Ancient History Started in 1971 when MH typed the US Declaration of Independence on a mainframe, and shared it. Continued through the 1980s and 1990s with the complete Shakespeare, the Bible and several other titles #10000 (Magna Carta) released in December 2004 Low-budget, volunteer driven: volunteers select which eBooks to produce

Project Gutenberg: The Collection Most of the world’s great English-language literature that is in the public domain in the US (basically, published pre-1923) Over 20 languages, many different formats Some copyrighted items, too, but mostly public domain Nearly 16,000 titles in the original PG collection (PG-US) Numerous affiliated projects, as well as other eBook projects

What’s an eBook? A literary work (broadly considered) in electronic format Read it like any book. Print it. Share it. Additional benefits versus paper books: Search, quote Reformat Fix/edit/extract Redistribute

Project Gutenberg’s eBooks No digital rights management Emphasis on plain text as “baseline,” other formats should be editable or derivable from plain text or HTML (moving to “born-as” XML in the future) Many eBooks are improved/fixed over time High production quality; many automated tools; state of the art digitization

Distributed Proofreading Great innovation! Shared proofreading via centralized database-driven site General literary works can be proofread in just a day or so; much tougher works can be spread over time with many helpers Common production criteria, with custom rules as needed Most eBooks now “born as” HTML + text Help make an eBook: http://www.pgdp.net

PG of Europe Just getting started; already with 65 languages Use the PG Europe Distributed Proofreading site to get help contribute A separate effort, PG-EU is proactive about resisting pan-European union copyright term extension http://pge.rastko.net

What is Copyright? Copyright was invented during the Enlightenment, partially in reaction to the invention of the movable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg (1450s) The Statute of Anne (1709) granted a 14-year copyright to the Stationer’s Company in England The first Berne convention of 1886 internationalized Copyright provides a temporary monopoly to written works and other intellectual output, so that creators of creative and scientific arts can benefit financially from their efforts Historically, copyright has usually been owned by the publishers, not the authors or editors or artists

What is the Public Domain? For literature and similar works, the public domain is essentially everything that is not under copyright protection Some works are in the public domain from the start For most new works today, including books, they get copyright protection automatically when they are created Due to international agreements, these principles apply worldwide

Why care about the public domain? The public domain is a huge source of cultural heritage It provides inspiration for new creative activity, based on older creative works Copyright was intended to balance the public domain. The target for creative works is and should be public domain – copyright is temporary. By design.

Many people get it backwards… From copyright.loc.gov: “Examples of what might have caused the work to be in the public domain in the United States include lack of proper notice, failure to renew, failure to comply with manufacturing requirements, being a sound recording fixed prior to U.S. protection, and lack of national eligibility, that is, the source nation and the United States did not then have a treaty relationship. “ This is backwards from the US founders’ intent, in which copyright registration is optional, voluntary and temporary

How does the Public Domain Grow? When copyright expires, items enter the public domain Items may be explicitly granted to the public domain by their copyright owners In the US, newly created items enter the public domain 95 or 120 years after creation In the rest of the world, the author’s death date is usually used to determine expiration of copyright. In the EU, this is 70 or 75 years after death

PG-US Copyright Rules http://gutenberg.org/howto/copyright-howto In the public domain in the US: Rule 1: pre-1923 Rule 5: 1923-1989 with no copyright notice Rule 6: 1923-1964 without renewal Rule 8: Government / crown published

Copyright duration (similar in the US, EU & elsewhere) Works Originally Created on or after January 1, 1978 A work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author's life plus an additional 70 years after the author's death. In the case of "a joint work prepared by two or more authors who did not work for hire," the term lasts for 70 years after the last surviving author's death. For works made for hire, and for anonymous and pseudonymous works (unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records), the duration of copyright will be 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html)

So what’s the Problem? The information explosion of the 20th century was paralleled by a reduction in the proportion of items in the public domain Copyright term extensions took copyright protection from 28 years in 1900 to 70/95/120 years in 1998 There is now no requirement for registration or renewal for copyright: it’s automatic Increasingly severe penalties for copyright infringement: In the US, this includes some criminal penalties, not just civil penalties

What are some numbers? Information is doubling every 12-18 months. Nearly all new information content is copyrighted automatically The public domain has essentially stopped growing, due to global copyright term extensions. Even at the old pre-1998 (in the US) growth rate, the public domain would be shrinking Today’s popular works (books, movies, music…) will still be under copyright protection after most of us are dead … and the creators will also be long dead

More numbers Historically in the US, only 10% of items were renewed for a 2nd copyright term. Yet, since 1977 renewal is no longer required. About 1 million books from 1923-1964 were not renewed, and are targeted for digitization Less than 1% of items from 1923 are still in print There are many orphaned works, which are technically under copyright, but the copyright holder (if any) cannot be identified

PG is Proactive about the Public Domain We digitized US copyright Renewal Records (eBook #11800) Help PGs or other projects get started elsewhere Provided amici briefs or other support in copyright cases (Eldred, Grokster/Morpheus, Kazaa…) Push the boundaries of permissible uses: US Title 17 Section 108(h); our Rule 6…

PG Growth over 23 Years YR 1990/1991/1992/1993/1994/1995/1996/1997/1998/1999/2000/2001/2002/2003 ^#### 10K>10/03 10K 9,500>9/03 9,500 9,000>8/03 9,000 8,500>7/03 8,500 8,000>5/03 8,000 7,500>3/03 7,500 7,000>1/03 7,000 6,500>12/02 6,500 6,000 >9/02 6,000 5,500 >7/02 5,500 5,000 >4/02 5,000 4,500 >2/02 4,500 4,000>10/01 4,000 3,500 >5/01 3,500 3,000 >12/00 3,000 2,500 > 8/00 2,500 2,000 >12/99 2,000 1,500 >10/98 1,500 1,000 >8/97 1,000 500 >4/96 500 100 >12/93 <<<December 10, 1993 100 10 > 12/90 10

What you can do Understand the public domain. Why does it need to be preserved? Make copyright decisions. Grant items to the public domain when appropriate. License them at other times, for wider use. Help enhance access to the public domain: digitize an eBook; donate some content Don’t confuse issues such as patents, trademarks and licenses with public domain

More what you can do Give away public domain items, that’s what they’re there for! Create derivative works Use public domain art, music … Avoid “locked” formats: opt for wider usage choices for content, not narrower

Help free literature Help create: http://www.pgdp.net (“a page a day is all it takes”) Help distribute: mirrors, copies, CDs/DVDs Help educate about the value of the public domain Resist misunderstanding of copyright, and the perception that it is permanent Literature wants to be free. You can help to free it!

More resources… www.copyright.gov – US-focused Union for the Public Domain http://www.public-domain.org/ is broad, and very interested in WIPO http://CreativeCommons.org will help you to license, and help you to grant to the public domain http://gutenberg.org for nearly 16,000 titles, most are in the public domain