“Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely.” – Rita Dove.  Unfortunately, the Authors Guild, an authors’ advocacy group, does not want library patrons to access books without its permission.  The Authors Guild filed a lawsuit against five universities and the HathiTrust last week.  Although the reasoning in its complaint is flawed, the Authors Guild successfully prevented access to numerous literary works that were set for digital release.   

Project Gutenberg is one of the Internet's great resources--the first "digital library," with thousands of public domain ebooks, and created entirely by volunteers. Its founder, Michael Hart, passed away this week, after founding the project--by typing in a copy of the Declaration of Independence--in 1971. In doing this, Hart invented the ebook, and what became Project Gutenberg release #1 is still available online. Hart's passing is a sad occasion but a good time to reflect on the importance of his life's work.

Dorothy and Toto aren't in Kansas anymore; and if by “Kansas” you mean “the public domain,” you may be right.

Earlier this month, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals drastically hemmed in the scope of the public domain by restricting the use of materials related to copyrighted works. The decision in Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. v. X One X Productions wades deep into the muck to make some truly unsettling assertions about the public domain, popular characters, and the scope of copyright. 

On today's podcast, we discuss the time traveling spectrum bill, monkey copyright, Comcast running into trouble with data caps, and updates from the Creators Freedom Project.  We also discuss Newport Television's attempt to silence criticism from Free Press by sending them a bogus DMCA takedown notice with Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright.

Creators' Freedom Project Related Events:

Working with Outside the Box Music, we're putting on our next "Rock Your Net" Internet marketing series, which starts August 4th in Nashville, TN. For more details, go here.

Parachute Musical and Ocean Is Theory, two bands that CFP is working with have a show in DC on Saturday, July 23 at DC9. More details on the bands' websites, download a free track from both bands here.

The 1861 Project is having its Album Release party next Tues, July 19 @ 7PM at Nashville's Basement. To RSVP, check out this Facebook Event.

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Yesterday, IMSLP, a website dedicated to archiving public domain sheet music lost its domain name due to a complaint sent by the UK’s Music Publishers Association to the site’s registrar, GoDaddy. The notice incorrectly claimed that IMSLP’s copy of Rachmaninoff’s The Bells infringed copyright. (Coverage by TorrentFreak, Michael Geist, and BoingBoing.)

Glenn Beck is a brilliant propagandist.  There’s no denying he has mastered every technique passed down from the ages of those who would confuse and mislead the public.  From the snide inflections of his voice to the baseless accusations, to just making things up, he is the latest to follow in a long, if disreputable, tradition.

In this week's podcast, we bring home the saga of T-Mobile and Weedmaps.com, discuss problems with the new generation of set-top boxes, summarize the Next Big Nashville/Digital Leadership Summit, the Open Hardware Summit, and the Open Video Conference.  We also talk to Aaron Dunn of Musopen, the free public domain classical music project about the project and about how you can help (hint: he doesn't need any more money).

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Oftentimes, opponents of Public Knowledge suggest that our calls for a balanced copyright is really a call for everything to be free. First off, this is wrong. Balanced copyright is an attempt to find a way to promote creation without restricting innovation or creativity (or “balance” the rights of the creators of the past, creators of the future, and the public), not make everything free (for the 2 page handout version of PK’s take on balanced copyright, click here (PDF)).

Second, and what really annoys me, is the implication that there is no real value to works once they are in the public domain.

Two articles in Sunday’s New York Times might appear unrelated at first, but together they illustrate some interesting points about copyright. The first discussed problems related to getting “backlist books” (books that were published a number of years ago but are still actively being sold) into an ebook format. The second had to do with zombies.

The ebook article was interesting, but it should not have surprised anyone who has been looking at digital copyright issues for the past few years. Actually, it is more of a contract issue than anything else. Before about 1994 publishing contracts did not contain any language that explicitly granted publishers the right to print books in an electronic form.

Much blog ink has been spilt over HBO's handling of the Inaugural Concert broadcast. Setting aside the omission of Rev. Robinson from the live broadcast, word is that HBO made YouTube remove people's personal recordings of the concert.

The details of this remain scant, but the ongoing implications of such actions are alarming.