Let's not forget the good work in progress by Michael Hart at Project Gutenberg for the past 20 years. The Project right now (the last time I checked) offers over 1000 downloadable works in the public domain.
There were plans three years ago to offer a "public domain register" in 1997 to coincide with the centennial of the founding of the U.S. Copyright Register in 1897. When it didn't come to pass, I wrote to Michael asking what happened. He replied that recent changes in copyright law were sufficiently confusing and had every appearance of moving in the direction of a system of perpetual copyrights that the public domain register project had been put on hold. A sad turn of events indeed. Still, we ought to get cracking on a Public Domain Foundation in my opinion.
Oliver
Oliver Seely
<oliver[_at_]dhvx20.csudh.edu>
Received on Sat Feb 13 1999 - 17:47:55 GMT
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