Michael Hart created Project Gutenberg in July 1971 to make electronic
versions of literary works and disseminate them for free. In 2009,
Project Gutenberg has had tens of thousands of downloads every day. As
recalled by Michael in January 2009, "I knew [in July 1971] that the
future of computing, and the internet, was going to be... 'The
Information Age.' That was also the day I said we would be able to
carry quite literally the entire Library of Congress in one hand and
the system would certainly make it illegal... too much power to leave
in the hands of the masses."
As defined by Project Gutenberg, "public domain is the set of cultural
works that are free of copyright, and belong to everyone equally", i.e.
for books, the ones that can be digitized and released on the internet
for free. But the task of Project Gutenberg hasn't be made any easier
by the increasing restrictions to public domain. In former times, 50%
of works belonged to public domain, and could be freely used by
everybody. A much tougher legislation was set in place over the
centuries, step by step, especially during the 20th century, despite
our so-called "information society". In 2100, 99% of works might be
governed by copyright, with a meager 1% for public domain.
In the "Copyright HowTo" section of its website, Project Gutenberg
explains how to confirm the public domain status of books according to
U.S. copyright laws. Here is a summary: (a) Works published before 1923
entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the copyright
date: all these works belong to public domain; (b) Works published
between 1923 and 1977 retain copyright for 95 years: no such works will
enter the public domain until 2019; (c) Works created from 1978 on
enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author if the
author is a natural person: nothing will enter the public domain until
2049; (d) Works created from 1978 on enter the public domain 95 years
after publication or 120 years after creation if the author is a
corporate one: nothing will enter the public domain until 2074.
Each copyright legislation is more restrictive than the previous one. A
major blow for digital libraries was the amendment to the 1976
Copyright Act signed on October 27, 1998. As explained by Michael Hart
in July 1999: "Nothing will expire for another 20 years. We used to
have to wait 75 years. Now it is 95 years. And it was 28 years (+ a
possible 28-year extension, only on request) before that, and 14 years
(+ a possible 14-year extension) before that. So, as you can see, this
is a serious degrading of the public domain, as a matter of continuing
policy."
John Mark Ockerbloom, founder of The Online Books Page in 1993, got
also deeply concerned by the 1998 amendment. He wrote in August 1999:
"I think it is important for people on the web to understand that
copyright is a social contract that is designed for the public good--where
the public includes both authors and readers. This means that
authors should have the right to exclusive use of their creative works
for limited times, as is expressed in current copyright law. But it
also means that their readers have the right to copy and reuse the work
at will once copyright expires. In the U.S. now, there are various
efforts to take rights away from readers, by restricting fair use,
lengthening copyright terms (even with some proposals to make them
perpetual) and extending intellectual property to cover facts separate
from creative works (such as found in the 'database copyright'
proposals). There are even proposals to effectively replace copyright
law altogether with potentially much more onerous contract law. (...)
Stakeholders in this debate have to face reality, and recognize that
both producers and consumers of works have legitimate interests in
their use. If intellectual property is then negotiated by a balance of
principles, rather than as the power play it is too often ends up being
('big money vs. rogue pirates'), we may be able to come up with some
reasonable accommodations."
Michael Hart wrote in July 1999: "No one has said more against
copyright extensions than I have, but Hollywood and the big publishers
have seen to it that our Congress won't even mention it in public. The
kind of copyright debate going on is totally impractical. It is run by
and for the 'Landed Gentry of the Information Age.' 'Information Age'?
For whom?"
Sure enough. We regularly hear about the great "information age" we
live in, while seeing the tightening of laws relating to dissemination
of information. The contradiction is obvious. This problem has also
affected several European countries, where the copyright law switched
from "author's life plus 50 years" to "author's life plus 70 years",
following pressure from content owners who successfully lobbied for
"harmonization" of national copyright laws as a response to
"globalization of the market". To regulate the copyright of digital
editions in the wake of the relevant WIPO international treaties, the
Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was ratified in October 1998 in
the United States, and the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD)
was ratified in May 2001 by the European Commission.
According to Michael Hart, and Project Gutenberg CEO Greg Newby, "as of
January 2009, the total number of separate public domain books in the
world is between 20 and 30 million, and that 5 million are already on
the internet, and we expect another million per year from now until all
the easy-to-find books are done. 10 million or so will be done before
people start to think about the facts telling them the rate cannot
continue to double as they come up to the point of already having done
half. New copyrights lasting virtually for ever in the U.S. will bring
the growth process to a screeching halt when The Mickey Mouse copyright
laws, literally, copyright laws on Mickey Mouse, and Winnie-the-Pooh,
etc., stop all current copyright from expiring for the forseeable
future."