So what’s One Laptop per Child up to with Google, an OLPC sponsor? Is it just using OLPC content or is more involved? Might there be OLPC-related competition in the future with the Open Library project associated with the Open Content Alliance? From the latest issue of an OLPC newsletter:
“11. Google Books: Luke Hutchison’s team has metadata and cross-linkage for most of Google’s scanned PD books and can readily share images, OCR text, and metadata for 100,000 volumes, given selection criteria. Luke’s summer work has been creating a way to run queries on the existing metadata to make such selections. There are still issues with copyright, surprisingly, as ‘public domain’ in the US does not mean public everywhere; their current stance is to avoid worrying about international copyright law by only providing works through US-based servers, but making a quick selection will soon be possible.”
Detail: Anyone know of interesting examples of countries with more restrictive copyright terms than the Untied States?
(Spotted via Bill Janssen‘s post to the eBook Community List.)
I thought with the passage of the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” that we had the most restrictive copyright laws anywhere. As an example, you can find works that are in the public domain at Gutenberg Austrailia that the main Gutenberg site in the US doesn’t have.
Come to think of it, Joseph, Quinn Carey might have written a post or comment on this very issue I’ll email her. Can’t find it offhand, but I do remember something. Meanwhile here’s a comparison of laws in various countries—dated around 2005. Thanks. David
Unfortunately Australia has now ‘harmonised’ its copyright laws with (i.e. kowtowed to) the US for all authors dying after 1955. We also have no general legislative protection for ‘fair use’ as the US does. So we now have the worst of both worlds.
But as the US is the world’s main producer and exporter of copyrighted material — at least in dollar value — you would be unlikely to find any country more obsessed with copyright protection.
Jon.
[…] competition in the future with the Open Library project associated with the Open Content Alliance? [+] Explore posts in the same categories: OLPC, open source, […]