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EBooks: Sony Now Offers 1 Million Free Books From Google Books
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| Barnes & Noble, which announced its eBook store and forthcoming hardware
| eReader last week currently features about 500,000 free books from Google,
| while Amazon's Kindle can read free books from Project Gutenberg, but doesn't
| offer compatibility with the ePub format that Google prefers. Amazon
| currently offers about 300,000 books.
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http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebooks_sony_now_offers_1_million_free_books_from_g.php
World eBook Fair Prepares For Final Week
,----[ Quote ]
| Many more books have been added since our initial report on the start of The
| World eBook Fair on July 4. As expected, Internet Archive is keeping up with
| their goal of adding another ~25,000 titles, about 1,000 each business day,
| but another 25,000 comes from the general readership of the patrons. We get
| messages to add books that our readers have compiled totally on their own–
| independently of the major eBook producers.
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http://www.pg-news.org/20090729/world-ebook-fair-prepares-for-final-week/
Recent:
B&N Wraps Public Domain Books In DRM To Protect Authors' Copyrights. What?
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| The ebook "war" is a race to the bottom, apparently, with Barnes & Noble
| trying to out-do Amazon on DRM stupidity. A reader emailed B&N customer
| service to point out that their "free books" offer consists of 5 public
| domain titles that are no longer protected under copyright, yet are still
| locked down with digital rights management (DRM). Their response? "For
| copyright protection purposes, these files are encrypted and cannot be
| converted or printed."
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http://consumerist.com/5325921/bn-wraps-public-domain-books-in-drm-to-protect-authors-copyrights-what
No need to burn books you can't read - DRM and public libraries
,----[ Quote ]
| As my correspondent says: "After all that I still couldn't open the document
| (which I've only opened once before) and got this. Now I know I haven't
| opened the document at another computer because this is my only computer with
| a printer - so I didn't open it anywhere else. I am never using this service
| again. The British Library, Microsoft and Adobe can go shove their DRM up
| their document delivery service exit. "
|
| This, let me reiterate, is a public body providing publicly paid-for research
| to a highly-qualified professional engaged in impeccable work for the public
| service.
|
| It is hard to imagine something more expensive, condescending, inaccurate,
| frustrating and enraging – nor something better calculated to restrict
| knowledge and broadcast ignorance.
|
| It's almost as if the parties involved actively want to prevent people
| learning. It certainly feels that way.
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http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009526o-2000331777b,00.htm
British Library fears loss of history
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| Lynne Brindley, director of the British Library, said that data and
| information on our time that has been entrusted to the web is being lost as
| some sites close or the technology they have stored the information on
| becomes obsolete.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/623/1050623/british-library-fears-loss-history
British Library Turns Traitor
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| This once-great institution used to be about opening up the world's knowledge
| for the benefit and enjoyment of all: today, it's about closing it down so
| that only those who can afford to pay get to see it.
|
| What an utter disgrace.
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http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2009/07/british-library-turns-traitor.html
Public Domain Ideas
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| Public Domain Ideas (PDI) is a place where ideas and inventions can be
| submitted to the public domain. It's like open-source software, but for ideas
| instead of code. Once an idea is submitted to PDI, it immediately goes into
| the public domain and cannot be patented. That means anyone is free to
| develop the concept without fear of litigation, and without having to pay
| licensing fees.
`----
http://www.publicdomainideas.org/index.php/Main_Page
Related:
Happy Public Domain Day!
,----[ Quote ]
| Michael sez, "It's January 1st! Do you know what works are passing into the
| public domain in the life+50, and life+70 countries? Lots! Here in the USA
| (where basically nothing published in 1923 or later will ever enter the
| public domain, to protect Disney's 'Steamboat Willie'), only unpublished
| works of the life+70 class of authors enter the public domain. Whew. Thank
| goodness for small favors, right?. We can now expect the unpublished works of
| George Gershwin, H.P. Lovecraft, Amelia Earhart, J.M. Barrie, and John
| Davison Rockefeller (yeah right), among many others, to be free and clear of
| copyright encumbrances for those who wish to publish them. Boy, unpublished
| works! Wow! After 70 years since they died, there must be lots of those
| hanging around, right? Right?"
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http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/01/happy-public-domain.html
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