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"Some time after six the gates opened and we began to file in one at a time. In the yard was an office where an official entered in a ledger our names and trades and ages, also the places we were coming from and going to --this last is intended to keep a check on the movements of tramps. I gave my trade as 'painter'; I had painted water-colours--who has not? The official also asked us whether we had any money, and every man said no. It is against the law to enter the spike with more than eightpence, and any sum less than this one is supposed to hand over at the gate."

From "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell - a non fiction book
read it online for free here.

It just shows how extending copyright, for one, really has no benefits for the general public. The only reason for enacting these sorts of copyright laws is to ensure that Australia is still in the "good books" with the US and the vested parties will get their royalties/fees...

One interesting point is that in Aus, since the copyright laws are (as yet, still) different, Project Gutenberg of Australia can host certain texts, including some Australian texts which would be public domain, but if this agreement goes ahead, some of these texts would be illegal to distribute...

When this was first mentioned, I spent some time reading up on the topic: I might as well share some links here.

The only organisation that I could find actively lobbying against the dilution of Public Domain rights in Australia was Australian Library and Information Association, a professional organisation for librarians. They are following this issue, and may appreciate your input and support; their online journal also contains an insightful article by an Australian National University professor of law on copyrights and public domain.

As other have pointed out, the retrospective extension of copyrights from Life+50 to Life+70, which even those advocating a longer copyright term admitted had no justification, is of particular concern to Project Gutenberg of Australia (site seems to be down at present--anyone know why?), which had published a number of until now Public Domain works on their site (for instance, the works of George Orwell). There's already some discussion of this on Distributed Proofreaders (registration may be required)--if you're a DP'er, you might like to contribute, and if you're not a DP'er, you should be.

HTH

NGSCB sounds deliberately obsure, but Microsoft has been pronouning it something like "Ingsoc". If you read 1984 (Warning: huge text file), it all makes sense.

Can the resistance stay alive?

Incidentally, there is a Project Gutenberg Australia which has quite a few works online which are still under copyright in the United States but not in Australia. Those seeking works more recent than 1923 or so might find it worthwhile taking a look there.

Keep in mind that if you don't reside in Australia you would be committing copyright infringement if you were to download anything from that site that is still under copyright in your country of residence.

Go to their site to see what they have, or use the invaluable U. Penn online books page to search for them.

Perhaps you know something I don't but don't copyrights tend to expire at the end of the year? I know for a fact that's true in the United States and Europe.

The number of works gifted to the public domain is minimal and, thanks to Sonny Bono, no American works will expire into the public domain for 20 years (of which we've used up about 4-5 so far).

Fortunately, Project Gutenberg has an Australian branch which (unsurprisingly) operates from Australia where copyright is 50 years after the death of the author and has been for a long time. New works expire there quite reliably every New Year's Day.

Check it out at Project Gutenberg of Australia.

-- Have you read 1984?
Since 1997, clicking this link is a Jail-able offense in the US.

Hi, I was wondering how come clicking the link is a jailable offence?

"The conclusion is pretty clear as well, as seen from the decades following the passage of the 1909 and 1976 laws: the drastic expansions of copyright had little to do with increasing innovation in this country."

If you have not ready 1984 here is where you can download an digital copy.
I highly recommend this book, however if you have a paranoid nature you may not really want to read it.

i just like to read

ps. i forgot that after I composed i did a search on google for "opengroup history" and found a doc on the unix.org website. I guess it would have been easier to reference that first of all, but I am a lonely geek who found solace in posting this message, even though it is near impossible it will even see the light of day given it is under anonymous posting and several threads deep

I'll scour back under my rock now, thanks for listening.

Damn right. Read Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell. One of the best books I've read in a long time.

If you're in Australia you can get it for free at Project Gutenberg Australia.

Ah how nice it is to live in a land with "short" copyright.

I suggest we start a large charity organisation and distribute a copy of 1984 to every American citizen. It might hopefully open the minds of the millions of Americans who admire Dubya Bush most.

Easier done than said. *g* <gropes around> Aha! "Hai!"
Text format Zipped

And while you're at it, look at Animal Farm too.
Text format Zipped

-uso.
*hides pegleg*

I suggest we start a large charity organisation and distribute a copy of 1984 to every American citizen. It might hopefully open the minds of the millions of Americans who admire Dubya Bush most.

Easier done than said. *g* <gropes around> Aha! "Hai!"
Text format Zipped

And while you're at it, look at Animal Farm too.
Text format Zipped

-uso.
*hides pegleg*

I suggest we start a large charity organisation and distribute a copy of 1984 to every American citizen. It might hopefully open the minds of the millions of Americans who admire Dubya Bush most.

Easier done than said. *g* <gropes around> Aha! "Hai!"
Text format Zipped

And while you're at it, look at Animal Farm too.
Text format Zipped

-uso.
*hides pegleg*

I suggest we start a large charity organisation and distribute a copy of 1984 to every American citizen. It might hopefully open the minds of the millions of Americans who admire Dubya Bush most.

Easier done than said. *g* <gropes around> Aha! "Hai!"
Text format Zipped

And while you're at it, look at Animal Farm too.
Text format Zipped

-uso.
*hides pegleg*

It is a hard read to begin with, but with perseverance, well worth it.

Works in the 'public domain' in Australia
Under Australian copyright law, literary, dramatic, & musical work published, performed, communicated, or recorded and offered for sale in an author's lifetime are protected for the life of the author plus fifty years from the end of the year of the author's death. After this time they enter into the public domain. EBooks on this page may be still copyright in the US and are therefore not available from the US site.

The requires LaTex source to post, which means a modern edition, which means it's copyrighted, which means you can't copy it (unless you have the publisher's permission.*)
Project Guttenburg only does texts which are in the public domain, which currently mean pre-1923 editions (PG of Australia has newer books) and, obviously, pre-1923 means that the only sources are print copies.

* pedantic point: it's the copyright holder's permission, which isn't necessairly the publisher, but usually is.

...Not many, but there are some Project Gutenberg books that are copyrighted and distributed with the author's permission.

Also, Project Gutenberg of Australia publishes a number of works that are out of copyright in Australia, but still under copyright in the U.S. It is a copyright infringement for readers in the U. S. to download these works, which include, among others, Hervey Allen's _Anthony Adverse_(1933), F. Scott Fitzgerald's _The Great Gadsby_ (1944), Khalil Gibran's _The Prophet_ (1923), D. H. Lawrence's _Lady Chatterley's Lover_ (1928), all of George Orwell's novels, most of Virginia Woolf's, etc. etc.

Not exactly "the latest Stephen King" but a lot newer than Dickens.

PG Australia falls under Aussie copyright law. They have shorter copyright terms than the good ol' USA does.

There are instances of jurisdiction differences allowing for newer works to be available before US'ians can legally download them. Case in point, Project Gutenberg of Australia has works that are not available in US Gutenberg servers.

So I'm reading through that list of books which I'm certainly not downloading the background as I type this -- *cough* -- and I noticed Mein Kampf is on the list of copyright-extended titles. The first question that pops into my head is: "Who's getting the royalty checks on that nowadays?"

another country that's sticking to Life+50 (or, why you can download 1984 and The Great Gatsby from a legit server).

Way to go, Taiwan!

Somebody had to be the hero...

I'm parroting a wimpy line here from Eric Eldred--a guy who has "extracted" public domain texts on his website from culled from Barnes & Noble ebooks in Microsoft's Reader format, but of course doesn't know a thing about Tripod's Techodude, and his posted method for pulling .txt from .lit.

Mr. Eldred said to me that he would have let his method be known, but, with the Supreme Court case and all...

Personally, I have too many readers now to get shut down over nothing, ulp, but am I allowed partial credit for convincing Gutenberg to go down under and take advantage of the copyright laws there that say Gatsby and 1984 are public domain?

Nah, I'm just a wuss.

Go get 'em, Bruce!

Try the Australian mirror as well. Because of discrepancies in the way countries expire copyright, many books are listed on the Australian site that are not available on the main repository.

And before you go bagging fullscale on the US; There are many books listed on the US site that are not on the British. We're not the worst! =)

http://www.gutenberg.net.au

and renews the copyrights on all of his works whenever they are due to expire

This is now nonsensical as copyrights are no longer "renewed." The only way to get extensions is to to buy numerous congresspeople and get law passed. However, in 1963, the failure to renew several of his copyrights did place major works into the public domain. As he's been dead for 52 years, any item copyrighted in 1923 or earlier has also expired.

The balance is public domain by Australian law, and is available at Gutenberg Australia