Issue 82: Personal Digital Library, Video Preservation, Selling Prayers, and Library Ebook Legisl…

Issue 82: Personal Digital Library, Video Preservation, Selling Prayers, and Library Ebook Legislation

The People Have Spoken
On a whim, last Thursday I put out a poll with the announcement of
last week’s issue
.
Out of the three threads,
controlled digital lending
,
gamers and NFTs
, and
cats
, the winner was cats.
The sample size was small—five votes—so I’m not ready to throw out the digital quill pen yet.
But if it readers want cats, readers shall have cats.
I have plenty of cat pictures.
And keep the feedback coming.
The threads this week:
Attorney General of India’s Online Collection of Rare Books
«Inside WWE’s massive video vault»
Prayers For Sale
Ebooks Wanted For Sale (for reasonable terms)
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.
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where I post the bookmarks I save. Comments and tips, as always, are welcome.
Attorney General of India’s Online Collection of Rare Books
Attorney General K.K. Venugopal has granted public access to a wide collection of rare books in his library, through a website. It lists over 570 books, some of which date back to the 17th century. The ‘antiquarian’ or rare book collection has been digitally scanned and made available for the public. The publications cover a wide range of subjects, from religion, mythology and the Vedas, to Indian art and sculpture, historical battles, the British Empire in India and tales of travels across the world.
The website, however, clarifies that these books are not copyrighted in India, either because the copyright has expired or because the books are not covered under the Indian copyright laws. It adds that while readers located anywhere in India can download them, those located outside India should check their country’s laws before downloading content from the website. The website also makes it clear that the books uploaded are for ‘personal or research use only, and not for commercial use or exploitation.
—
Attorney General KK Venugopal converts his rare book collection into public online library
The Print (India), 25-Mar-2020
I learned about this article and corresponding website during the
Controlled Digital Lending Implementers (CDLI)
monthly forum.
Aishwarya Chaturvedi, LL.M. candidate from the Cornell Law School, spoke about copyright law in Inda relative to efforts to start a controlled digital lending practice at the forum, and she included mention of
Mr. Venugopal’s library website
.
It is a WordPress site with the books embedded with a PDF reader, and some of the books are relatively recent—1980s and one from 1994.
Ms Chaturvedi has a preprint in SSRN:
Digital Libraries, Copyright and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study of India and The United States
.
It is a cross-cultural exploration of the legal mechanics of d…