Re: Turn of the 20th century documents on Vinland - Shipley, Fischer & Jelic

From: Paul Murray (paul_at_murray.net)
Date: 06/21/04 

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 07:55:14 GMT

In article <uEvBc.96483$dP1.316598@newsc.telia.net>, Inger E Johansson wrote:
> I probably heard of Project Gutenburg before you did, anyhow long before it
> was launched.

Was it mentioned in the secret Vatican archives?

> That isn't the same as if you or any other private person put
> up the documents on net in it's original.

It is exactly the same. Michael Hart is a private individual. Project
Gutenberg has no special status granting it rights to reproduce public
domain texts, anyone can do it.

> Appart from that when it began to
> be discussed it was at least a discussion between Libraries, Museum and
> other Archieve-owners which lead to an agreement of how the copyrights
> should be looked after.

No, it was started by Michael Hart, not a collection of Libraries, Museums
and other Archive owners.

"G.2. Where did Project Gutenberg come from?

In 1971, Michael Hart was given $100,000,000 worth of computer time on a
mainframe of the era. Trying to figure out how to put these very expensive
hours to good use, he envisaged a time when there would be millions of
connected computers, and typed in the Declaration of Independence (all in
upper case--there was no lower case available!). His idea was that everybody
who had access to a computer could have a copy of the text. Now, 31 years
later, his copy of the Declaration of Independence (with lower-case added!)
is still available to everyone on the Internet."

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