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

2. 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

3. Who is this guy?
Learned about eBooks in 1998, when a friend sent Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by
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)

5. 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

7. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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:

12. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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

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

21. 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. (

22. 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

23. What are some numbers?
Information is doubling every 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

25. 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 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

26. 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…

27. 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/ ,500
7,000>1/ ,000
6,500>12/ ,500
6,000 >9/ ,000
5,500 >7/ ,500
5,000 >4/ ,000
4,500 >2/ ,500
4,000>10/ ,000
3,500 >5/ ,500
3,000 >12/ ,000
2,500 > 8/ ,500
2,000 >12/ ,000
1,500 >10/ ,500
1,000 >8/ ,000
500 >4/
100 >12/ <<<December 10,
10 > 12/

28. 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

29. 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

30. Help free literature
Help create: (“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!

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