To: Michael Hart <hart@pobox.com> Subject: Project Gutenberg Etext #1,000: Dante From: "Michael S. Hart" <hart@prairienet.org> Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 12:01:25 -0500 (CDT) This is the Project Gutenberg Newsletter for September 4th, 1997 Announcing Etexts #997 to #1036 "Never, in the field of literature, have so many owed so much to so few." First things first. . . . THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To all those who have volunteers help to Project Gutenberg, over more than a quarter of a century and especially to the anonymous volunteers [at least anonymous for now], and to those who worked VERY hard with me over the past few days [not to mention months] to get us from Etext #900 to Etext #1,000 on schedule. You can be a Project Gutenberg volunteer, email hart@pobox.com. * You might be interested in taking a look at next week's issue of Time magazine in the Time Digital Section in Point/Counterpoint. You can see me in my cap and gown holding a stack of 1,000 CDROM disks that will be able to hold 10,000,000 Etexts in the new DVD format. With compression I am told it could be 20,000,000 Etext files, which would be more books than any library contains. The University of Illinois library, in which this picture was taken, contains only 10,000,000 items in all its branches and is one of the largest half dozen libraries in the United States. * Yes, in rereading this I realize I write in sentences that would be considered too long by today's standards; please bear with me as much as possible on this occasion which is quite possibly the pinnacle of my career [unless we get massive new support we will not be able to double our production per year ever again]. * >From our humble beginnings with a single copy of the Declaration of Independence of the United States now exactly 315 months ago, the goal of Project Gutenberg has always been to demonstrate how computers should create a Neo-Industrial Revolution/Renaissance, through the efforts of a moderate number of people multiplied in a nearly infinite manner by the power of computers to copy books with incredible ease, once they are entered into digital formats readable by common persons with common computers and programs. Since that day on July 4th, 1971, when there were ~100 people on the entire Internet, which had just started reaching out from an infancy of a handful of U.S. West Coast mainframes, each with an approximate power of modern calculators selling well under $100, the invention of the personal computer for the common persons by Woz and Jobs [Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who eventually would become known as Apple Computers Inc.] has changed the face of an electronic generation for the rest of history. On that very July 4th, 1971, we had to predict the onset of what would come to be known as the "personal computer" and little did we know that the Apple II would hit the market before the end of the 1970's and we have been thankful to Woz and Jobs, Bill Gates and Gary Kildall & all the other pioneers of personal computers. The personal computer was a indispensable requirement for us who wanted to bring a collection of great books to millions/billions of people around the world. At that time United States copyright was 28 years, with possibly 28 more years, if certain legal conditions were met. Most works were never renewed, so by 1978 we would have been able to print, so to speak, most works published before 1950. However, this was also the heyday of the xerox machine, and they were not going to sit idly by while a new generation of machines allowed easy copying of nearly anything in two dimensions. BUT, instead of trying to enforce the copyright laws, they broke them by extending all copyrights to 75 years, and eliminating renewal requirements, much as what had happened in the early 1900's when the new steam and electric printing presses had made printing so inexpensive that Sears could afford to send catalogs to millions of people for whom this would be the first book they ever owned. Thus, to drive these new, more efficient publishers out of THEIR business, the old line publishing lobby talked the U.S. Congress into to voiding the copyright laws that had stood since founding the United States, and doubling copyrights from 14 years, with a possible 14 year renewal, to 28 years, with 28 year renewals. *THOSE WHO ARE NOT AWARE OF HISTORY ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT!* Every single time a new publishing technique has promised to get the common people a home library, laws have been passed to stop, dead in its tracks, this kind of "Information Age." >From the first copyright laws, which were designed to eliminate, most successfully I might add, the presses which were originally started by Johannes Gutenberg in 1455, to the next generation of copyright laws designed to eliminate, again most successfully, a rash of "home libraries," published less expensively than modern [early 20th century] publishers wanted to compete with, to xerox revolutions and revolutionaries, which were legally stifled by a new copyright law in 1976, to the most current copyright bill in the U.S. Congress, which threatens to remove yet another million books from the public domain because modern day publishers would be unable to compete with electronic publishing today. *AT THE START OF THIS CENTURY COPYRIGHTS WERE 14 YEARS, NOW THEY *ARE THREATENING TO SURPASS 100 YEARS, A PERIOD LONGER THAN WILL *BE LEGAL FOR ANY CONTRACT TO BE SIGNED FOR [this is why Panama, *Hong Kong, etc., were leased for just under 100 years]. Information Age??? For Whom??? We hope it will be for you. Here are the latest 40 Project Gutenberg Etexts Mon Year Title and Author [# of PG books by the author][filename.ext] ### A "C" following the Etext number indicates a copyrighted work. Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno, 7-bit Italian [1ddcdxxx.xxx] 997 Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Purgatorio 7-bit Italian[2ddcdxxx.xxx] 998 Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Paradiso, 7-bit Italian [3ddcdxxx.xxx] 999 Aug 1997 La Divina Commedia di Dante in Italian, 7-bit text[0ddcdxxx.xxx]1000 Aug 1997 Longfellow's Translation of Dante, Inferno [1ddclxxx.xxx]1001 Aug 1997 Longfellow's Translation of Dante, Purgatory [2ddclxxx.xxx]1002 Aug 1997 Longfellow's Translation of Dante Paradise [3ddclxxx.xxx]1003 Aug 1997 Longfellow's Translation of Dante, Entire Comedy [0ddclxxx.xxx]1004 Aug 1997 H. F. Cary's Translation of Dante, Hell [1ddccxxx.xxx]1005 Aug 1997 H. F. Cary's Translation of Dante, Puragorty [2ddccxxx.xxx]1006 Aug 1997 H. F. Cary's Translation of Dante, Paradise [3ddccxxx.xxx]1007 Aug 1997 H. F. Cary's Translation of Dante, Entire Comedy [0ddccxxx.xxx]1008 Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Inferno [8-bit text] [1ddc8xxx.xxx]1009 Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Purgatorio [8-bit text] [2ddc8xxx.xxx]1010 Aug 1997 Divina Commedia di Dante: Paradiso [8-bit text] [3ddc8xxx.xxx]1011 Aug 1997 La Divina Commedia di Dante in Italian 8-bit text [0ddc8xxx.xxx]1012 We need desperately need proofreaders for these Dante files, most particularly the Italian ones. If you have editions of dates or copyrights before 1922, please let me know. Aug 1997 The First Men In The Moon, by H.G. Wells [Wells#9][fmitmxxx.xxx]1013 Aug 1997 The Lure of the Dim Trails, by B.M. Bower[Bower#3][ldmtrxxx.xxx]1014 Aug 1997 The Oregon Trail, by Francis Parkman, Jr. [ortrlxxx.xxx]1015 Aug 1997 Improvement of Understanding by Spinoza[Spinoza10][spintxxx.xxx]1016 Aug 1997 The Soul of Man, by Oscar Wilde [Wilde #14] [slmanxxx.xxx]1017 Aug 1997 The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley [Kingsley #3][wtrbsxxx.xxx]1018 Aug 1997 Poems by the Bronte Sisters [as Bell Brothers] B#5[brntpxxx.xxx]1019 Aug 1997 Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, by Amy Lowell [AL #3][sbapsxxx.xxx]1020 Aug 1997 The Congo and Other Poems, by Vachel Lindsay[VL#3][cngopxxx.xxx]1021 Aug 1997 Walking, by Henry David Thoreau [Thoreau #3] [wlkngxxx.xxx]1022 Aug 1997 Bleak House, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #33] [blkhsxxx.xxx]1023 Aug 1997 The Wrecker, by Stevenson and Osbourne [RLS #39] [wrckrxxx.xxx]1024 Aug 1997 Essays, by Benjamin Rumford [Volume 1, BR#1] [essbrxxx.xxx]1025 Aug 1997 Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith [dnbdyxxx.xxx]1026 Aug 1997 The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey[#3 by Zane Grey][lrngrxxx.xxx]1027 Aug 1997 The Professor, by Charlotte Bronte [#6 by Brontes][tprofxxx.xxx]1028 Sep 1997 The Night-Born, by Jack London [Jack London #9 [ntbrnxxx.xxx]1029 Sep 1997 Cavalier Songs & Ballads of England, MacKay/Editor[csboexxx.xxx]1030 Sep 1997 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde[Wilde#15][crmdsxxx.xxx]1033 Sep 1997 The Pupil, by Henry James [#14 by Henry James] [pupilxxx.xxx]1032 Sep 1997 Rose O' the River, by Kate Douglas Wiggin [KDW#4] [rorvrxxx.xxx]1033 Sep 1997 Poems, by Wilfred Owen [wowenxxx.xxx]1034 Sep 1997 The Man against the Sky, by Edwin A. Robinson [#2][tmatsxxx.xxx]1035 Sep 1997 Joe Wilson and His Mates, by Henry Lawson [HL#2] [jwahmxxx.xxx]1036 Gutenberg in Portugal and Brasil Project Gutenberg now has the following mirror site in Portugal, and a site in Brasil is under construction. We would VERY much like to open more sites south of the equator. If you know some places we could ask, please let us know. gutenberg.esoterica.pt ftp.esoterica.pt/dir?mirrors/gutenberg ftp.esoterica.pt/gutenberg ftp.esoterica.pt/pub/mirrors/gutenberg gutenberg.esoterica.pt/pub/mirrors/gutenberg ftp.esoterica.pt/pub/mirrors/gutenberg A note of interest for potential Project Gutenberg volunteers: XEROX INTRODUCES SCANNER-PRINTER-COPIER FOR HOME USE Xerox is introducing a $499 machine that combines scanning, printing, and copying capabilities with easy-to-use software. Industry analysts don't expect rival manufacturer Hewlett-Packard to incorporate color scanners into its products before next Spring. 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Michael S. Hart Project Gutenberg We need your donations desperately. Please send what you can to: Project Gutenberg P.O. Box 2782 Champaign, IL 61825-2782 [Check should be made out to "Project Gutenberg/CMU"] Thanks! Michael To subscribe or unsubscribe to or from the Project Gutenberg Newsletter or change your subscription address to Project Gutenberg's Newsletter: send email to: listproc@prairienet.org say: unsub gutnberg unsub gutvol-l Message MUST be sent from the address you subbed from, of course. To sub from a new address, send message from there: sub gutnberg [yourfirstname] [yourlastname] If you want the volunteers' list sub gutvol-l [yourfirstname] [yourlastname] [That is "gutvol-L" NOT "gutvol-1"] Thanks!! Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> Project Gutenberg Executive Director Internet User ~100
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