Book People Archive

Re: copyright

On Fri, 4 May 2001, Joseph Pietro Riolo wrote:

>
> On Thu, 3 May 2001, Michael S. Hart <hart@[redacted]> wrote:
> > Someday, when I/we have raised a billion dollars,
> > we should start suing all these people for
> > "Misuse of Copyright". . . .
>
> Then, how do you explain the long range of the years as appeared
> in the copyright notice at http://promo.net/pg?  The copyright
> notice states:
>
>      Copyright &copy; 1971-2001 Project Gutenberg & PROMO.NET -
>      All Rights Reserved.
>
> ("&copy;" is a HTML symbol meaning a circle around the letter C.)
>
> What part of the web page or website that was published in 1971
> with a valid copyright notice and was registered with the U.S.
> Copyright Office in 1971?
>
> Joseph Pietro Riolo
> <riolo@[redacted]>
>
Project Gutenberg does not directly control ANY of the dozens
of Websites that mirror our work around the world. . .they just
pick up the files from our FTP sites and then make their own
Web sites to help people use them.  My own understanding of it
is that it is only the site specific material that they are
referring to as being copyrighted, but you'll have to ask each
individual webmaster to be sure.

The only portions of Project Gutenberg _I_ own as intellectual
property are the name "Project Gutenberg" and the two domains,
gutenberg.org and gutenberg.net. . .and perhaps a few articles
I wrote for limited distribution. . . .  Also, while on this;
many people think ALL Project Gutenberg Etexts are public domain,
but perhaps 1% of them were done with permission, and are clearly
labelled as being copyrighted.


Thanks!

So nice to hear from you!


Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
"Ask Dr. Internet"
Executive Director
Internet User ~#100