[free-sklyarov] _Alice_ read aloud

[Karsten M. Self]

on Fri, Aug 24, 2001 at 11:31:20PM -0700, Jon O . (jono at microshaft.org) wrote:
> 
> Yes, I think you've got something here...
> 
> Furthermore, The Project Gutenberg License states:
> 
> DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
> You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
> disk, book or any other medium if...
> 
> The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
>           no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
>           form by the program that displays the etext (as is
>           the case, for instance, with most word processors);
>           OR
> 
>      [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
>           no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
>           etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
>           or other equivalent proprietary form).

This is a misleading abridgment of the Project Gutenberg license.

Under the forward material to Alice, is the section "DISTRIBUTION UNDER
"PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm":

    You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by disk,
    book or any other medium IF YOU EITHER DELETE THIS "SMALL PRINT!"
    AND ALL OTHER REFERENCES TO PROJECT GUTENBERG, OR:

(emphasis added)

Note that the emphasized text, dropped in Jon O's post, allows for
unrestricted use of the text if the Project Gutenberg additions are
removed.  The remaining text is public domain (specified earlier in the
preferatory text), and hence, its use is unrestricted.

The following terms (quoted partially in Jon O.'s post) refer to terms
for copying and distributing the *entire work*, with the PG additions.



What Project Gutenberg does by prepending and appending text to the work
is to create a derivative work.  The bulk of the work itself, absent
these additions, under the public domain, may be used in any manner
without respect to PG's license:  the work isn't PG's to license.

Thus, the issue of whether the eBook _Alice_, to the extent it contains
just the public domain portions of the PG _Alice_, includes, omits, or
adds to, the PG license, is largely irrelevant.

I would argue, however, that the claims of Mr. Zelchenko are patently
absurd and fly in the face of legal fact.

IANAL, this is not legal advice.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>          http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?             There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/               http://www.kuro5hin.org
   Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA!    http://www.freesklyarov.org
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