Thursday, January 21, 2010

LIS 568 - Public Domain, Does that mean free?

This class continues to pretty much rock as I learn more and more about technology, resources, and services for libraries and library media centers. Why do you ask? This week we're learning about, among other things, what 'pubic domain' means. According to Richardson it is "a work not protected by copyright" or "may not be eligible for copyright protection at all".(Note that I am giving the author credit as to avoid a copyright issue.) For example, facts can't be copyrights. However, manipulating the facts into a catchy poem to help children remember it for a test could be copyrighted. So why am I excited? My wonderful boyfriend got me a Kindle for Christmas. Check it out at www.amazon.com . As I have been eagerly waiting to download books, my thrifty self has also been investigating what books I can download for FREE! Yes, FREE!
Our assignment this week lead me to a website that has an ongoing list of free books. The site can be found at www.gutenberg.org. From here, you can locate hundreds of free books. Just out of curiosity, I cross referenced several titles with the amazon list of available book downloads. Amazon has many free titles that can be downloaded with in seconds. Although you have an account for your Kindle with Amazon, it is not charged, but instead is added to your Kindle book inventory. At the Project Gutenberg site, you can download the books right to your computer via HTML or to an audio file. You can read or listen to the books at the click of your mouse. I did find, however, that many of these overlapping titles at Amazon downloaded much faster. But, I am not complaining.

Most of the books availalbe are older books, but many are classics. Some are terrifice and some are just, well, available. Sill, what a cool project the Gutenberg Organization has undertaken. Thanks to public domain laws, many works by Charles Dickens, E. Frank Baum, Mark Twain, are all free on your computer to read or listen to.

If you're still interested in Public Domain Law, check out these sites

copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm
www.law.duke.edu/cspd/

As a new LIS student, I'm an avid reader and just love books. Reading books that I have only seen movies about or have forgotten about has been a great joy in my life. Thanks public domain laws.

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