Draft, then. "What do Howard Carter, discoverer of the tomb of King Tut, author Zane Grey of the cowboy classic "Riders of the Purple Sage", and sexologist Havelock Ellis have in common? The answer is that they all died in 1939, meaning that on New Year's Day all their works are free from copyright.
Every year there occurs an event like the well-publicised opening of the Public Records, but which often goes unnoticed, when the copyright expires on authors who have been dead for 70 years. In the Internet age, their works can then become free downloads, and with a ebook reader the likely new trendy consumer electronics item, "Public Domain Day" will in future become the signal for mass distribution of free texts and voice recordings. Other authors newly in the public domain in 2010 include W. B. Yeats and Sigmund Freud, and the classic children's book illustrator Arthur Rackham. Wikimedia UK helps promote the uploading of copyright-free texts in accessible form on the Wikisource website, and campaigns to free up more content for everyone to use." Comments: Not entering into too many copyright technicalities for the usual reasons (press can ask). This is presented as the half-baked story, which is one form of classic press release (allows journalist to have inspiration as to other components). (No Ford Madox Ford, sadly: "The Good Soldier" is one of the great books, but too few people know that.) Charles _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediau...@wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org
