Ebook seminar

Ebooks: Reading, Copyright, and Digital Rights, soctech seminar Spring 2005

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Schedule details

Week 3. Copyright of digital documents

• Read, prior to class:
  • Peter Givler "Copyright: It's for the public good" Association of American University Presses (3 pages)
  • "Some Rights Reserved": Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright (1 page)
  • O'Reilly First to Adopt Founders' Copyright (3 pages)
• Discussion leader: Ben
• Topics:
  • Nothing new, but harder to enforce... or is it? (The DMCA)
  • Is there any need for a public domain if I can access anything for a nickel?
  • Clinton whitepaper, Berne, WIPO
  • Celestial Jukebox
• Useful websites:
  • Copyright and Fair Use Center
  • US Copyright Office
  • UW COPYRIGHT INFORMATION FOR EDUCATORS

Week 4. Licensing of digital documents

• Read, prior to class:
  • UW Libraries Electronic Resource Usage Rights and Restrictions (1 page)
  • Creative Commons "Choosing a License" (2 pages)
  • Creative Commons "Some Rights Reserved": Building a Layer of Reasonable Copyright (1 page)
• Discussion leader: law person? (Bob Gomulkiewicz? Stuart Sutton?)
• Topics:
  • It ain't copyright, but contract law!
  • The DMCA: DRM enforcement with no (legal) exceptions for the public
  • Dude, where's my 200 years of fair use caselaw?
  • Licenses that "guarantee your freedom to share and change" (Free software and the Creative Commons)

Week 5. In Libraries: "Can I check out this eBook?"

• Read, prior to class:
  • David Kirkpatrick "Battle Over Access to Online Books" New York Times June 17, 2002
  • KCLS eBooks
  • UW Libraries NetLibrary FAQ
• Discussion leader: Peter Cole and KCLS Guest TBA
• Topics:
  • library's issues to include ebooks- selection, vendors, public access
  • complicated and expensive reading devices
  • potentially crippling legal problems

Week 6. Scholarly publishing

• Read, prior to class:
  • Marshall Poe “Note to Self: Print Monograph Dead; Invent New Publishing Model” J. of Electronic Publishing, December 2001 (5 pages)
  • Colin Steele "Phoenix Rising: New Models for the Research Monograph?" Learned Publishing, April 2003 (12 pages)
• Discussion leader:
• Topics:
  • Do universities already pay production costs?
  • Who needs pretty magazines when we've got arXiv.org (do the humanities)?

Week 7. DRM Technology

• Read, prior to class:
  • "Digital rights management" from Wikipedia (currently 7 pages)
  • "Converting .LIT files for fun and profit" (3 pages)
  • Jury Acquits Elcomsoft in eBook Copyright Case (1 page)
  • Security Researchers Drop Scientific Censorship Case (2 pages)
• Optional Recommended Reading:
  • John Walker The Digital Imprimatur (currently 53 pages, but many sections can be skipped)
• Discussion leader: CSE person?
• Topics:
  • what exactly are "effective technological measures"?
  • Is the DCMA a problem for research?

Week 8. Preservation

• Read, prior to class:
  • Emulation and BBC Domesday (7 pages)
  • Technical Obsolescene (1 page)
  • Peter Hirtle "Digital Preservation and Copyright" (6 pages)
• Optional Recommended Reading:
  • Organizational Approaches to Preserving Digital Content CLIR (6 pages)
• Discussion leader: CSE person?
• Topics:
  • will those created today be around in 100 years?
  • if so, how about reading those bits as an ebook?

Week 9. Digital documents in international development

• Read, prior to class:
  • Digital Library of India Vision (1 page)
  • Million Book Project FAQ (6 pages)
  • Rural Kids Print, Bind, and Read (3 pages)
• Discussion leader: Evans school person?
• Topics:
  • Kahle's bookmobile, Million Book Project and others

Week 10. Accessibility

• Read, prior to class:
  • Ebooks and Accessibility (7 pages, but most can be skimmed)
  • Microsoft Reader Accessibility FAQ (3 pages)
  • The Soundproof Book (5 pages)
• Discussion leader:
• Topics:
  • How much access should laws mandate?
  • Do we need something like NLS when Text-to-Speech is virtually free?

Past courses to mine for useful content

• LIS 520, Monographs section

Floating readings

These are readings that haven't been matched to a date yet.

• Are these ebooks? (Why or why not?)
  • Lindisfarne Gospels via British Library (Illuminated manuscript written c.700 C.E.)
  • The Internet Galaxy / Manuel Castells via Google Print
  • Free Culture / Lawrence Lessing (350-page PDF with bookmarks)
  • Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865 via Gutenberg Project
  • In the Beginning was the Command Line / Neal Stephenson (150 pages in plain text)
  • DocBook: The Definitive Guide / Norm Walsh (652 pages in HTML)
  • NetLibrary books from UW Libraries
  • Anything on an Amazon.com item page

Other notes

• assumptions:
  • everyone will have at least a layman's understanding of terms
  • we can come up with one good discussable reading per session
  • a volunteer or assigned discussion facilitator for each session

• Honestly, I don't particularly like the name ebooks. For me, the term is to closely associated with a struggling publishing industry. I think this class is more generally interested in the digital rights issues, and looking to exclude visual and audio art. How about the term "digital word?" - David
• I don't like the name either, but what does "digital word" mean to anyone? We'll deal with the misconceptions in class. :) - Joshua

How many days worth of class is this?

Past Discussions

Week 1: Intro

• Discussion leader: Joshua
• Topics:
  • What this is course about and not about, and why are we here?
  • basic definitions,
  • what attendees want out of the class

• Notes:
• We have a wide range of interests, including but not limited to:

-Why are people reading books on tiny screen, and how can it be a better experience?
-How will ebooks fit into the public library?
-With DRM, are we using the "hammer" of technology against a problem that isn't a "nail"?
-Several people are interested in the law, intellectual property, copyright, and fair use
-How can we deal with the very real accessibility concerns?

• Our attempts at what the definition of an ebook is based on:

-the effort it takes to produce one
-its difference from articles, news, etc.)
-the rights that come along with the name "book"
-something that it relatively static (content-wise)
-we don't know, let the experts decide
-what you do with it defines what it is
-ability to compare with others over time and/or space
-emotional or sentimental connection with an object

• Ditto, for DRM:

-any technology that treats the user as an adversary
-technological measures that give the illusion of protection/control
-an alternative to trust
-things that give personal comfort to rights holders

• Joshua's central question for the course:

Taking the current balance for books as a model, what should be balance of rights look like for ebooks and how can DRM technology implement this balance?