[Seth-Trips] Bookmobile and Bookmobile party [wild@eff.org: [E-S] EFF: Fwd: Digital Bookmobile Tour Gives Free Internet Books to Kids, Goal Is One Million Public Domain Books Online]

[Seth David Schoen]

----- Forwarded message from Will Doherty <wild at eff.org> -----

From: Will Doherty <wild at eff.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 15:59:53 -0700
Subject: [E-S] EFF: Fwd: 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 at archive.org
  +1 650 724-3358

Jeff Ubois
  Public Relations
  Internet Archive
  jeff at 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/

                           -end-





----- End forwarded message -----

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Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org> | Reading is a right, not a feature!
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