Digital Bookmobile Tour Gives Free Internet to Kids, Goal Is OneMillion Public Domain Books Online

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest to readers of liblicense-l.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Will Doherty <wild@eff.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 15:59:53 -0700
To: presslist@eff.org
Subject: EFF: Digital Bookmobile Tour Gives Free Internet Books
to Kids, Goal Is One Million Public Domain Books Online

[This media release redistributed with permission by EFF as a courtesy to
the media professionals on the EFF presslist. IA Founder Brewster Kahle is
an EFF Board Member.]

Internet Archive Media Advisory

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Contact:

Lauren Gelman
   Bookmobile Project Director
   Internet Archive
   lauren@archive.org
   +1 650 724-3358

Jeff Ubois
   Public Relations
   Internet Archive
   jeff@archive.org
   +1 510 527-2707

Digital Bookmobile Tour Gives Free Internet Books to Kids

Goal Is One Million Public Domain Books Online

San Francisco - On September 30, the Internet Archive's (IA) Digital
Bookmobile will embark on a cross-country journey to deliver free digital
books to children nationwide.

The Bookmobile will stop at public schools, libraries, universities,
mobile home parks, retirement homes, a Bookmobile conference, Hewlett
Packard Digital Village schools, and the Inventors Hall of Fame, printing
free copies of public domain books along the way.

The Bookmobile will park and print books at the United States Supreme
Court building where, on October 9, the Justices will hear arguments in
Eldred v. Ashcroft, a landmark case that will decide how many books can be
part of the Bookmobile's digital library and all other digital libraries
in the U.S. The case will determine if the government can extend copyright
by another 20 years, effectively removing millions of books from the
public domain.

"A healthy public domain means more books for more children," said IA
Founder Brewster Kahle. "It's tragic that 98% of all books controlled by
copyright are out of print, and therefore not available through the
Internet."

Kahle and his eight-year-old son Caslon will pilot the Bookmobile on its
cross-country trip. Caslon says, "Bookmobiles rule!"

To celebrate the public domain and the launch of the Bookmobile, the
Archive is hosting a "going-away party" at the Archive from 4:30-7:30pm
PDT on Friday, September 27. IA invites anyone who loves books to join us
in wishing the Bookmobile a safe and fun-filled journey.

For directions to the Internet Archive party:
http://www.archive.org/about/contact.php

For this advisory:
http://www.eff.org/IP/20020924_eff_bookmobile_pr.html

Bookmobile conference:
http://eagle.clarion.edu/~grads/csrl/great.htm

Inventors Hall of Fame:
http://www.invent.org/index.asp

Hewlett-Packard Digital Village Program:
http://grants.hp.com/us/digitalvillage/index.html

About the Bookmobile:

The Bookmobile is a rolling digital library capable of downloading public
domain books from the Internet via satellite and printing them anytime,
anywhere, for anyone. Just as the bookmobiles of the past brought
wonderful books to people in towns across America, this century's
bookmobile will bring an entire digital library to their grandchildren.

The Bookmobile is a Ford Aerostar with a satellite dish mounted on top,
and a card table, chairs, and laptops in the trunk. It is packed with a
high-speed printer, book cutter, and book binder, donated by Hewlett
Packard and the Computer History Museum. At each stop, using the laptops
hooked up to the Internet via satellite, a user will be able to access the
library of public domain works at www.archive.org and choose a book, which
will then be downloaded, printed, and bound.

For more information and pictures of the Bookmobile suitable for
publication, see: http://www.archive.org/bookmobile/

About Internet Archive:

The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to
provide "universal access to human knowledge." Located in the Presidio of
San Francisco, IA is building a digital library of Internet sites and
other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, the
Archive provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the
general public.

For more information on the Internet archive, see: http://www.archive.org

About Eldred v. Ashcroft:

Eldred v. Ashcroft is a challenge to the Sony Bono Copyright Extension
Act, which extended copyright by 20 years both for existing copyrights and
for future copyrights. Under this law, copyright owners control their work
for their lifetime plus 70 years. That means for 20 years, not one new
book will enter the public domain, and this is just the most recent
extension. Copyright has been extended 11 times in the last 40 years.
Since works have been repeatedly and retroactively kept under copyright
control, the concept of a Public Domain must now be considered by the
Supreme Court.

The Internet Archive submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court
explaining that if Congress is allowed to keep on extending the copyright
term, it will take works even longer to enter the public domain. This will
stifle the vibrancy of digital libraries that depend on new technologies
to distribute works to people the publishers tend to forget.

For more information on the Eldred v. Ashcroft, see:
http://www.eldred.cc/

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