Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Lister
Can anyone name a single important work that copyright prevents me from obtaining in a reasonable amount of time, generally minutes, and at a reasonable cost, generally free?
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I've wanted to read the unabridged version of Winston S. Churchill's history of World War I,
The World Crisis, for years. I would now have to obtain it, volume by heavy volume, on interlibrary loan, and each volume is so long that I'd risk not being able to finish it by the non-renewable due date.
I could read a reference copy at a university library, spending dozens of hours there. But, selfish me, I would find that highly inconvenient.
Within a year after
The World Crisis goes out of copyright in the US (not that I'll live so long!), it will likely be available as a free eBook from Project Gutenberg or successor.
There are lots of other award-winning mid-twentieth-century books that are unlikely to be available as corrected eBooks before copyright expires. Most of them I could get out of the main Philadelphia library, in paper. But not everyone lives near a big library.
Mobileread is dedicated to the idea that there's an advantage to mobile reading, so all the post-1922 Pulitzer prize winners not available as eBooks should also count heavily against the current copyright length, regardless of whether they are still in print (some are, some are not).
P.S. If I could afford it, which I cannot, I could also buy the Churchill set for a mere $448 plus shipping used:
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...c-_-ats-_-used