Distributed Digital Library - Ideas

[sanjayayogi]

Another very good example of use of archives for scholarship and research purposes. It is interesting to note that it is even more restrictive than the Library of Congress.

http://www.archive.org/about/terms.php

Internet Archive's Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Copyright Policy
Terms of Use
10 March 2001

This terms of use agreement (the "Agreement") governs your use of the collection of Web pages and other digital content (the "Collections") available through the Internet Archive (the "Archive"). When accessing an archived page, you will be presented with the terms of use agreement. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use the Archive’s Collections or its Web site (the "Site").

Access to the Archive’s Collections is provided at no cost to you and is granted for scholarship and research purposes only. The Archive, at its sole discretion, may provide you with a password to access certain Collections, provided that you complete any required application process and provide accurate information in your application. You may use your password only to access the Collections in ways consistent with this Agreement — no other access to or use of the Site, the Collections, or the Archive's services is authorized. You agree not to interfere with the work of other users or Archive personnel, servers, or resources. Further, you agree not to recirculate your password to other people or organizations or to copy offsite any part of the Collections without written permission. Please report any unauthorized use of your password promptly to info@archive.org. You acknowledge that you have read and understood the Archive’s Privacy Policy and agree that the Archive may collect, use, and distribute information pursuant to that policy. If you provide any content to the Archive, you grant the Archive a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to use that content.

Some of the content available through the Archive may be governed by local, national, and/or international laws and regulations, and your use of such content is solely at your own risk. You agree to abide by all applicable laws and regulations, including intellectual property laws, in connection with your use of the Archive. In particular, you certify that your use of any part of the Archive's Collections will be noncommercial and will be limited to noninfringing or fair use under copyright law. In using the Archive's site, Collections, and/or services, you further agree (a) not to violate anyone's rights of privacy, (b) not to act in any way that might give rise to civil or criminal liability, (c) not to use or attempt to use another person's password, (d) not to collect or store personal data about anyone, (e) not to infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, or other proprietary rights of any person, (f) not to transmit or facilitate the transmission of unsolicited email ("spam"), (g) not to harass, threaten, or otherwise annoy anyone, and (h) not to act in any way that might be harmful to minors, including, without limitation, transmitting or facilitating the transmission of child pornography, which is prohibited by federal law and may be reported to the authorities should it be discovered by the Archive.

You agree that we may contact you from time to time with surveys or other questions regarding your opinions about and uses of the Archive, as well as with information we believe may be of interest to you. We encourage you to respond to these surveys because we value your input, which will assist us in improving the Archive. In addition, we request that, according to standard academic practice, if you use the Archive's Collections for any research that results in an article, a book, or other publication, you list the Archive as a resource in your bibliography.

While we collect publicly available Internet documents, sometimes authors and publishers express a desire for their documents not to be included in the Collections (by tagging a file for robot exclusion or by contacting us or the original crawler group). If the author or publisher of some part of the Archive does not want his or her work in our Collections, then we may remove that portion of the Collections without notice.

The Archive may immediately terminate this Agreement at its sole discretion at any time upon written notice (including via email) to you. Upon termination, you agree that the Archive may immediately deactivate any password it has issued to you and bar you from accessing the Collections or the Site.

The Archive may modify this Agreement from time to time, and your continued use of the Collections and/or the Site constitutes your acceptance of any and all modifications. The Archive will attempt to notify you of substantial modifications via the email address that you have registered with us, if any.

Because the content of the Collections comes from around the world and from many different sectors, the Collections may contain information that might be deemed offensive, disturbing, pornographic, racist, sexist, bizarre, misleading, fraudulent, or otherwise objectionable. The Archive does not endorse or sponsor any content in the Collections, nor does it guarantee or warrant that the content available in the Collections is accurate, complete, noninfringing, or legally accessible in your jurisdiction, and you agree that you are solely responsible for abiding by all laws and regulations that may be applicable to the viewing of the content. In addition, the Collections are provided to you on an as-is and as-available basis. You agree that your use of the Site and the Collections is at your sole risk. You understand and agree that the Archive makes no warranty or representation regarding the accuracy, currency, completeness, reliability, or usefulness of the content in the Collections, that the Site or the Collections will meet your requirements, that access to the Collections will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free, or that defects, if any, will be corrected. We make no warranty of any kind, either express or implied.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Internet Archive and its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, officers, directors, and employees from and against any and all liability, loss, claims, damages, costs, and/or actions (including attorneys’ fees) arising from your use of the Archive’s services, the site, or the Collections. You agree that this Agreement is governed by California law and that any suit arising from this Agreement will be brought in San Francisco, California, and you further agree that on the election and reasonable notice of either party any litigation shall be referred to arbitration pursuant to the California Code of Civil Procedure, §§1280 et seq. In addition, you agree that should any provision in the Agreement be found invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.

Under no circumstances, including, without limitation, negligence, shall the Archive or its parents, affiliates, officers, employees, or agents be responsible for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from or in connection with the use of or the inability to use the Site or the Collections, or any content contained on the Site or in the Collections, or resulting from unauthorized access to the Collections or your transmissions of data, including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, use, data, or other intangibles, even if the Archive has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so some of the above may not apply to you.

This Agreement, the Privacy Policy, and other policies posted on the Site constitute the full and complete agreement between you and the Archive and are not intended to inure to third-party beneficiaries.

We welcome your input. Please contact us with any comments or questions at info@archive.org.

Privacy Policy
10 March 2001

The Internet Archive (the "Archive") is committed to making its constantly growing collection of Web pages and other forms of digital content (the "Collections") freely available to researchers, historians, scholars, and others ("Researchers") for purposes of benefit to the public. The Archive offers access to some of its Collections mainly by allowing Researchers to access its Unix machines. This open approach is somewhat like the situation in a public library, where staff and patrons might see who else was in the library and a bit of what they were working on. When Researchers using the Collections log on to the same Unix machine using different accounts, some sharing of information may take place. While the Archive endeavors to enforce its Terms of Use (http://www.archive.org/terms/index.html) and maintain standard computer security, it is important for both those who visit the site ("Visitors") and Researchers (collectively, "Users") to be aware of the open nature of the Archive.

The Archive may make changes to this policy from time to time and will notify you of such changes by posting an updated date in the Terms, Privacy, and Copyright link at the bottom the home page of the Archive's Web site (the "Site"). Your continued use of the Site and/or the Collections constitutes your acceptance of any changes to the Privacy Policy concerning, but not limited to, both previously and prospectively collected information.

What Personal Information May the Archive Have on Its Computers and Systems?
Because the Archive uses standard Web logging in its Web servers, our Web server may automatically recognize the domain name of each Visitor, each Visitor’s IP address, what Web page the Visitor requests, and the time of the request, along with a variety of information supplied by the visitor’s browser. See http://www.microsoft.com and http://www.netscape.com for information about the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers, and see http://www.apache.org for details about Web logs.

In addition, the Archive may collect the email addresses and messages of those who communicate with it via email or who enter email addresses in forms.

The Archive may collect personally identifying information when a Researcher registers for access to the Collections, including the Researcher’s name, address, telephone number, and email address, and the Researcher’s proposal for using the Collections.

The Archive may use "cookies" to track Users' activities on the Site and in the Collections. Cookies are small files that a server transfers to the hard drive of someone who visits a site and that the server can access when the person returns to the site.

The primary sources of content for the Collections are publicly accessible Web pages that were collected and donated by third parties, but the Archive will expand on such sources through its own collection activities. For instructions on removing a particular set of pages currently included in the Collections, please see our policies and procedures for page removal.

The communications between you and the Archive may pass through many machines, operating systems, programs, browsers, Web servers, networks, routers, Ethernet switches, Internet service providers, proxy servers, intranets, the public phone system, or other devices (collectively, "Devices") on your premises, at the Archive, and in between. Some of these Devices create logs of activities that are recorded on computer systems.

What Might the Internet Archive Do With the Information on Its Computers?
The Archive has no present intention to charge for access to the Collections. The Archive may transfer the information on its machines, including personally identifying information, into the Collections. The Collections are made available to researchers and may be made available on the Site, or provided to third parties, for any use, without limitation. For instance, parts of the Collections are now in the collections of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.

Advances in data mining technology may make it possible to discover more personally identifiable information or profiles in the Collections.

The Archive may disclose any information it collects from Users if the Archive believes in good faith that such action is reasonably necessary to enforce its Terms of Use or other policies, to comply with the law, to comply with legal process, to operate its systems properly, or to protect the rights or property of itself, its Users, or others.

It is possible that the computers at the Archive could become compromised by others and that the information on the Archive’s computers could be collected and disseminated without the knowledge or consent of the Archive. While the Archive endeavors to block "crackers" from breaking into its machines, the Archive is not responsible or liable for any such unauthorized uses of the Archive or its data.

How to Update Researcher Registration Information
Researchers can help the Archive maintain the accuracy of their information by notifying the Archive of any changes in their address, title, phone number, or email address. Contact the Archive by email at info@archive.org to see, update, or delete your information.

Copyright Policy
10 March 2001

The Internet Archive respects the intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights of others. The Internet Archive may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, remove certain content or disable access to content that appears to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyright has been violated by material available through the Internet Archive, please provide the Internet Archive Copyright Agent with the following information:

Identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
An exact description of where the material about which you complain is located within the Internet Archive collections;
Your address, telephone number, and email address;
A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or are authorized to act on behalf of that owner; and
Your electronic or physical signature.
The Internet Archive Copyright Agent can be reached as follows:

Internet Archive Copyright Agent
Internet Archive
300 Funston Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94118
Phone: 415-561-6767
Email: info@archive.org

For More Information
If you have any questions or comments regarding these terms and policies or the Archive’s data collection practices, please contact the Archive at info@archive.org or Internet Archive, PO Box 29244, San Francisco, CA 94129-0244, phone 415-561-6767.

[sanjayayogi]

The following is the qualifications for the Bookshare.org accessibility qualifications:

http://www.bookshare.org/_/membership/qualifications

Qualifications
If you have a disability that makes it difficult or impossible to read a printed book, you most likely will qualify for Bookshare® services. To confirm that you qualify, you, or the organization representing you, will be asked to provide your Proof of Disability (certified by a qualified professional) during the registration process.

The table and the answers to common questions below provide guidelines for determining what qualifies as a print disability. It also lists examples of professionals qualified to make this assessment. For more detailed information, visit the Frequently Asked Qualifications Questions below.

Disability Qualified/Not Qualified Examples of Certifying Professionals
Visual Impairment (VI), such as blind or low vision Qualified A family doctor, ophthalmologist, optometrist, Teacher of the Visually Impaired, Special Education teacher

Certification from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in the U.S. or similar national body
Physical Disability (PD) which affects one’s ability to read print, such as inability to hold a book or turn pages Qualified A family doctor or other medical professional, physical therapist, resource specialist, Special Education teacher

Learning Disability
Reading Disability
Students with a severe enough disability, and a professional certifying that the disability has a physical basis A neurologist, psychiatrist, learning disability specialist, Special Education teacher, school psychologist, or clinical psychologist with a background in learning disabilities

Autism
Emotional disabilities
ADHD
ESL and ELL
Not qualified unless accompanied by a visual or physical disability, or a qualified reading disability that has a physical basis

Examples above
Frequently Asked Questions: Qualifications
I have a vision disability; how do I know if I qualify?
If you are legally blind, you qualify. In addition, if you don’t meet the legal blindness standard, a functional vision assessment that indicates a significant problem accessing text is also acceptable.
I have a learning disability; how do I know if I qualify?
If you are a K-12 student in the U.S. who has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) with a specific language learning disability and a need for text accommodations, your school should be able to confirm that you qualify and sign you up for Bookshare membership. Post-secondary, adult, or non-U.S. students should be able to obtain equivalent qualifications if they have a significant learning disability that affects reading.
I have a physical disability; how do I know if I qualify?
If you can’t pick up a book, turn pages, maintain visual focus on a book or don’t have the physical stamina to work with printed material, you most likely qualify for Bookshare membership.
So, who doesn’t qualify?
The 98% of the population who can pick up a book and read it (or could if they learned to read). The copyright exemption exists to help the small number of people whose disabilities have a major impact on their ability to read. Other people who don’t qualify include:
People without disabilities
People who haven’t learned to read yet, but could
People who don’t speak the language they want to read
People with disabilities that don’t impact the ability to read (for example, most hearing and emotional disabilities)
Some people with these disabilities might qualify on another basis. For example, someone who is deaf and legally blind qualifies for Bookshare. Someone with a developmental disability and a learning disability might qualify.
I’m a certifying professional. How can I access the technical requirements for certification?
The full technical and legal details are available on the Chafee Amendment page. If you are certifying someone who has a physically-based disability (including dyslexia) that makes it difficult to read standard print effectively, he or she should meet the technical requirements and you should be able to confirm this in writing if your professional expertise is applicable to such a determination.
Is autism a qualifying print disability?
Does a hearing impairment qualify?
Is dyslexia a qualifying print disability?
Can you explain the Chafee Amendment?
What are the requirements to verify a print disability? Which legal definition do you use to ensure an individual is qualified?
It is very important to remember that eligibility requirements are defined by copyright law, not education law. While many of these questions imply that the requirements seem restrictive, the requirements come from the law, and it is the law that allows Bookshare to function legally. The basis for Bookshare’s legal existence is an exemption in the U.S. copyright law called the Chafee Amendment, which is Section 121 of copyright law. Chafee allows a government or authorized entity such as Bookshare to provide alternative format books and media to individuals with print disabilities.

This copyright law exemption tries to balance the needs of people who are unable to read normal print with the rights of publishers and authors. It is not based on who might benefit from access to accessible materials: it restricts the exemption to a group of people who are assumed to not be able to access regular print materials because of a severe disability. Publishers and authors don’t receive a royalty under this copyright exemption, and have an interest in ensuring it stays narrowly focused on the one or two percent of the population who can’t read standard print.

Some people with very real disabilities that might benefit from accessible text may not meet this legal definition. People who are deaf, have cognitive disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism or mental illness do not meet this definition by virtue of those disabilities alone. It is quite possible that some people with these disabilities still qualify because of other factors. For example, a severe visual or learning disability could also be present in a person with these other disabilities. So, a person who is deaf and blind, or ADHD and dyslexic, could qualify.

Bookshare puts the responsibility of certification on the professional signing the Proof of Disability form to confirm that each Bookshare Member meets the copyright definition. Here’s a simplified guide on students who should be able to qualify for Bookshare services and have a certifying professional sign off on their qualification:
Students with visual impairments that keep them from reading standard print (blind, legally blind, or with other functional vision limitations).
Students with severe learning disabilities that keep them from being able to effectively read standard print. This includes students with IEPs that call for text accommodation to respond to specific language learning disabilities.
Students with physical disabilities that prevent them from reading print or using a print book. Such a limitation could be the result of a spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, a neurological condition, etc.
There is a lot of confusion and misinformation about qualifications. For example, many people with learning disabilities do not meet the qualification, because their disability doesn’t affect their ability to read print or their disability is not severe enough to meet the stringent language of the copyright regulations. Not all students with IEPs qualify for Bookshare services. For example, a deaf student with an IEP who is reading text at grade level would not meet the copyright definition of print disability, while qualifying for other services related to deafness.

The Bookshare team believes strongly in the value of accessible media for students beyond those who qualify under the copyright exemptions. Bookshare is working with publishers to see if there’s a solution for these students that provides publishers and authors with compensation. But, for now, Bookshare needs to operate in careful compliance with copyright law to ensure that Bookshare can serve students with severe disabilities today.

[sanjayayogi]

The following is the Chafee Amendment:

http://www.bookshare.org/_/aboutUs/lega ... eAmendment

Copyright Law of the United States and Related Laws
Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code Circular 92, as amended in 2004

Chapter 1
Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright
§ 121. Limitations on exclusive rights: reproduction for blind or other people with disabilities 1

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute copies or phonorecords of a previously published, nondramatic literary work if such copies or phonorecords are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.
Copies or phonorecords to which this section applies shall -
not be reproduced or distributed in a format other than a specialized format exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities;
bear a notice that any further reproduction or distribution in a format other than a specialized format is an infringement; and
include a copyright notice identifying the copyright owner and the date of the original publication.
The provisions of this subsection shall not apply to standardized, secure, or norm-referenced tests and related testing material, or to computer programs, except the portions thereof that are in conventional human language (including descriptions of pictorial works) and displayed to users in the ordinary course of using the computer programs.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement of copyright for a publisher of print instructional materials for use in elementary or secondary schools to create and distribute to the National Instructional Materials Access Center copies of the electronic files described in sections 612(a)(23)(C), 613(a)(6), and section 674(e) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that contain the contents of print instructional materials using the National Instructional Material Accessibility Standard (as defined in section 674(e)(3) of that Act), if -
the inclusion of the contents of such print instructional materials is required by any State educational agency or local educational agency;
the publisher had the right to publish such print instructional materials in print formats; and
such copies are used solely for reproduction or distribution of the contents of such print instructional materials in specialized formats.
For purposes of this section, the term -
"authorized entity" means a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities;
"blind or other persons with disabilities" means individuals who are eligible or who may qualify in accordance with the Act entitled "An Act to provide books for the adult blind", approved March 3, 1931 (2 U.S.C. 135a; 46 Stat. 1487) to receive books and other publications produced in specialized formats; and
"print instructional materials" has the meaning given under section 674(e)(3)(C) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; and
"specialized formats" means -
Braille, audio, or digital text which is exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities; and
with respect to print instructional materials, includes large print formats when such materials are distributed exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.
1 The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1997, added section 121. Pub. L. No. 104-197, 110 Stat. 2394, 2416. The Work Made for Hire and Copyright Corrections Act of 2000 amended section 121 by substituting "section 106" for "sections 106 and 710." Pub. L. No. 106-379, 114 Stat. 1444, 1445.

Read the full text of Chapter 1.

[sanjayayogi]

Bookshare.org - policy for compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 ("DMCA")

http://www.bookshare.org/_/aboutUs/legal/policyDMCA

1. General Statement
This policy is intended to implement the procedures described in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 ("DMCA") for the reporting of alleged copyright infringement. It is the policy of Benetech®, Beneficent Technology, Inc., Bookshare® and Benetech.org and its subsidiaries ("Benetech") to assist in the protection of the legitimate rights of copyright owners. Users of any part of Benetech's websites that have the ability to post on it are required to comply with the legal protections provided under United States and international copyright laws.

2. Designated Agent:
Bookshare, Director of Operations
480 California Ave, Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA 94306-1609
(650) 644-3400
fax (650) 475-1066
E-mail: info@bookshare.org

Upon receipt of notification of a claimed infringement, Benetech will follow the procedures outlined herein and in the DMCA. Complaints made to the Designated Agent will be handled as described herein.

3. Complaint Notice Procedures for Copyright Owners
A notice of alleged copyright infringement delivered to the Designated Agent must include the following:

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.

(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Benetech to locate the material.

(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit Benetech to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.

(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief, and the reasons for that belief, that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Failure to include all of the above information may result in a delay of the processing of the DMCA notification.

4. Notice and Takedown Procedure
It is expected that all users of any part of this website or any other Benetech website will comply with applicable copyright laws. However, if Benetech is notified of claimed copyright infringement, or otherwise becomes aware of facts and circumstances from which infringement is apparent or likely, it will respond expeditiously by removing, or disabling access to, the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, if Benetech has any reason to believe that the material is not covered by the exemption under 17 U.S.C. § 121. Benetech will comply with the appropriate provisions of the DMCA in the event a counter notification is received by its Designated Agent.

5. Accommodation of Standard Technical Measures
It is Benetech's policy to accommodate and not interfere with standard technical measures it determines are reasonable under the circumstances, i.e., technical measures that are used by copyright owners to identify or protect copyrighted works

[sanjayayogi]

This page contains Bookshare.org legal disclosure information:

http://www.bookshare.org/_/aboutUs/legalInformation

Legal Requirements
The Seven Point Digital Rights Management Plan
Copyright Infringement Complaints
Please also visit Bookshare’s complete list of legal agreements and forms.

An exception in the U.S. copyright law, known as the Chafee Amendment (17 U.S.C. § 121), makes Bookshare® possible under the law in the United States, as long as the copyrighted digital books are only available to people with bona fide disabilities.

The Bookshare site does not provide access to copyrighted works for the general public.

Although the requirements of the copyright law exception are quite clear, Bookshare has gone beyond these requirements to ensure broad support for the project. We have been working with the Association of American Publishers, the main industry group, to address publishers' concerns in the design of the service. Many publishers and authors have volunteered to share their works with the disability community through Bookshare, going well beyond the copyright exception. We are also working with the leading disability organizations, including the Library of Congress and Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. With extensive input from consumers, publishers and leading organizations, we have created a plan for Bookshare that can be supported by a broad array of interests.

Legal Requirements
Bookshare is an online community that allows users with print disabilities to legally share books. It includes the necessary controls to protect against use by non-disabled persons. Bookshare meets the requirements of the relevant section of copyright law, 17 U.S.C. § 121:

"… it is not an infringement of copyright for an authorized entity to reproduce or to distribute copies of a previously published, nondramatic literary work if such copies are reproduced or distributed in specialized formats exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities."

Copies may not be reproduced or distributed in a format other than a specialized format exclusively for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.
Must bear a notice that any further reproduction or distribution in a format other than a specialized format is an infringement.
Must include a copyright notice identifying the copyright owner and the date of the original publication.
"Specialized formats" means Braille, audio, or digital text which is exclusively intended for use by blind or other persons with disabilities.
As a project of the Benetech® nonprofit organization, Bookshare meets the definition of an authorized entity. Our status was also confirmed by the U.S. Department of Education, when they made a major award to Bookshare, an award that could only be made to an authorized entity.

Bookshare is based on electronic Braille and digital talking book standards and copyright law recognizes these digital formats as specialized formats for the disabled. Braille books and four-track audio cassettes are the most commonly recognized specialized formats in use over the past thirty years.

In addition, some publishers and authors have provided permission for books and other publications they provide in digital form to be made available in accessible digital formats to individuals with qualifying disabilities either just within the United States or worldwide. For more information, visit our Publisher and Author information pages.


The Seven Point Digital Rights Management Plan
Bookshare makes active efforts to ensure that its collection and its users abide by the law to maximize the benefits realized by the disability community and minimize abuse. Bookshare controls the format of the materials that it provides and ensures the appropriate copyright notices are in its digital publications. Access is restricted to disabled individuals and other authorized entities. Digital rights management helps to ensure that access remains limited to those covered by the copyright law exemption.

1. Qualified Users
Only blind or other persons with disabilities that affect their ability to access print are permitted to download copyrighted books. Bookshare follows the procedures and standards for access to books that were developed by Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D). A Bookshare user must register and supply a signed certification completed by an appropriate professional in the field of disability services education, medicine, psychology or a related area. The certifier must be a recognized expert who can attest to the physical basis that limits the applicant's use of standard print. Appropriate certifying experts may differ from disability to disability. For example, in the case of blindness and visual impairments, an appropriate certifier may be a physician, ophthalmologist, or optometrist. In the case of a perceptual disability, a neurologist, learning disability specialist, or a psychologist with a background in learning disabilities may be the most qualified certifying professional.

In addition, since any U.S. resident who has previously submitted a proof of disability to NLS (National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Congress) would qualify under the law, we have a cooperative agreement where NLS will certify to us that he or she has such proof already.

2. Contractual Agreement
All Bookshare users have to agree to terms of use that forbid violation of the copyright law restrictions on redistribution and use of copyrighted material. Users who violate these terms will lose their access to Bookshare and may suffer other legal consequences as a result of their actions. Attorneys from the publishing industry had the opportunity to comment on these agreements and Bookshare made numerous changes in response to their concerns.

3. Copyright Notice
In order to comply with the copyright law regulating the provision of accessible books to people with disabilities (17 U.S.C. § 121), Bookshare ensures that all copyrighted materials bear a notice that any further reproduction or distribution in a format other than a specialized format is an infringement. Such content includes a copyright notice identifying the copyright owner and the date of the original publication.

In addition, there is other language reminding users of their obligations to use this material only as permitted by their agreements with Bookshare and the law. It also informs people who are not Bookshare users that their possession of a Bookshare digital book is a violation of the copyright law and that they should erase such a book without using or copying it. View the text of the Bookshare Legal Agreements.

4. Encryption
Bookshare encrypts a requested book for a given user. The content delivered for that user can be decrypted only by a password and is then saved to the specified DAISY or BRF (Braille) file.

5. Fingerprint
All copyrighted material downloaded is fingerprinted as part of the encryption process so that the identity of the authorized user is contained within the decrypted material in a difficult to find fashion. This way, if a user illegally redistributes material downloaded from Bookshare, it is possible to confirm both that the materials came from Bookshare and which user was responsible.

6. Security Database
All transactions, encryption codes and fingerprints are stored in a database enabling Bookshare to track any abuse to the source. Users are informed of the existence of this database as part of Bookshare's privacy program, and are informed of the limitations of the use of this data (it will only be used to respond to abuse problems, and not for marketing or other purposes).

7. Security Watch Program
A security program monitors all transactions and will suspend any user whose account exhibits any excessive downloading of content or other unusual activity. This program will build usage profiles and over time will be strengthened through experience to flag potential abuse. For example, there will be an active effort to suspend accounts that show evidence of abuse.


Copyright Infringement Complaints
As explained above, it is not an infringement of copyright for Bookshare to provide accessible books to people with bona fide disabilities. If you believe that a copyright has indeed been infringed, please do one of the following:

If you are a copyright owner, please follow the steps as outlined in the Bookshare DMCA Policy (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).
If you are not a copyright owner, you can report suspected abuse directly to Bookshare.

[Misty]

While it doesn't provide hosting, are some of the things you want to do compatible with the database used by Open Library? They provide user-editable database entries for books with links to public-domain fulltext on sites like Archive.org where applicable - for example this entry for Border Land by Charles Townsend. Their unified naming schemes are based on LCCN (Library of Congress numbering) and OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre) as used by WorldCat, which make it easier to have interchangeable numbers for pre-ISBN books - which is going to be most PD material.

[sanjayayogi]

http://linkeddata.org/

Linked Data

Linked Data is about using the Web to connect related data that wasn't previously linked, or using the Web to lower the barriers to linking data currently linked using other methods. More specifically, Wikipedia defines Linked Data as "a term used to describe a recommended best practice for exposing, sharing, and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URIs and RDF."

http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2010/ ... inked.html

Here are Brinker's eight business models for Linked Data (somewhat relabeled based on who's writing checks):

1. Subsidy. Entities such as governments with a mandate to make information available will pay to have it linked into a global web of information.

2. Subscription. People will pay for valuable data, and will pay more for data that has been linked to a global web of information.

3. Advertising. Advertisers will pay to information in raw data feeds.

4. Authority. People will pay for the validation and certification of data.

5. Affiliate marketing. Merchants will pay sales commissions on sales resulting from affiliate links in embedded in the global web of data

6. Service Enhancement. People will pay for services which have been enhanced by data from a global web.

7. Search Engine Optimization. Search engines will send you more traffic if you give them more meaningful data.

8. Brand Enhancement. Your reputation will be burnished if you emit lots of good information.

Hellman comments:

(I should note that Brinker describes each model a bit differently so that he can add a dimension that characterizes whether data is delivered raw or as an application. I find that this dimension is not at all orthogonal. A data driven subscription service is a service that makes use of data, but the core business model is not to sell a data subscription.)

There are difficulties with all of these business models, but it strikes me that each of them will only work in one direction, like a train track without switches. Either they work for emitting data, or they work for consuming data, but none of the models work in both directions at the same time. If you're providing a service that's either based on Linked Data or enhanced by it, you can pay for the data, but if you send that data back out, your competitors get the data for free. Conversely, if you're emitting data, it's hard for you to pay for it.

Imagine you're in the book metadata business. You can use several of these models to support creation of book metadata, or you can consume book-related metadata to provide book-related services. But what if you want to support an activity of aggregating book data or fixing errors in book metadata? None of these models will work for you because you'll either be competing with the entities you get data from, or you'll be competing with entities you send data to.

What's missing from this list is a business model for the Linked Data switch. Entities that take in Linked Data, improve it or otherwise add value and reemit it as Linked Data have no solid business model to run on. Everyone active so far in the Linked Data business is either a data sink or a data source. To realize the full potential of Linked Data, there need to be viable switches, both collecting and emitting Linked Data.

My thinking here:

1. Digitizing information is a value adding activity. It takes something that is difficult to move from one place words, ideas, images "trapped" in paper) and by converting it to bits and bytes sets the stage for information to flow.

2. More value may be added to the scanned images by associating "meta-data" in the form of standardized formats, i.e. Dewey Decimal system for example is used by libraries so that someone may find a book in a physical library.

3. Allowing search robots "spiders" to link all relevant data to a given search term, sorting the results, without unnecessary and distracting data, adds yet another layer of value. This allows distributed data that may be geographically dispersed be quickly aggregated and linked.

4. Optical character recognition, subsequent proofing, error correction, sets the stage for another significant leap in value.
. Information that is converted to digital may more rapidly be translated into different formats, for example audio formats for the blind, fonts resized for the visually impaired, and storage and transmission made more efficient since text is generally a smaller file size.

5. Further enhancements in value might include commentaries, enhancing readibility by translation to a variety of human/machine interfaces, the addition or removal of images, photo, video, or links to other material.

6. A community, united by a common mission and vision, that acts with a common goal, and produces work that is of a quality that is equal or superiour to what is available, and makes it available for others to use or reuse, now, and in the future in formats that may be as yet unimagined creates work that has incredible value, much as the original authors, editors, publishing houses did at the time of the original creation.

[sanjayayogi]

While it doesn't provide hosting, are some of the things you want to do compatible with the database used by Open Library? They provide user-editable database entries for books with links to public-domain fulltext on sites like Archive.org where applicable - for example this entry for Border Land by Charles Townsend. Their unified naming schemes are based on LCCN (Library of Congress numbering) and OCLC (Online Computer Library Centre) as used by WorldCat, which make it easier to have interchangeable numbers for pre-ISBN books - which is going to be most PD material.

Misty:
At the moment, my vision does include the incorporation of other unified naming schemes. I envision these as another layer of metadata tagged on, as close to the point of creation.

A thought at the moment is that there is an incredible amount of hidden material that is looking for a legitimate way to "out". People have been scanning and copying material for years now, without a legal basis, but are sufficiently aware of the copyright issues to not just post material that is clearly under copyright. With a non-profit research library structure, would it be possible for these images to start to find their way into the public eye, where search engines could start to find and link them in such a way that other value added activities could be perfomed on them. Their value will increase with time, and their subsequent replication will insure data redundacy, so that complete books/document could be recomposed from their parts in the future.

A self-regulating community of book scanners, that are able to name their scans in a sufficiently standardized basis to be both human readable ie "self-describing" the content in the file, as well as machine readable, ie a program is able to read the name in such a way to extract meta-data that may then be cross-referenced to other APIs and translated and or super-tagged with other other tagging schemes.

This concept of linking and adding links to other tagging systems, reminds me of some of the ideas in Literary Machines by Ted Nelson.

http://ted.hyperland.com/

Comments by Ted himself:

The best summary of my work (except for certain details) is by Tim Berners-Lee, below. While I greatly appreciate his intention, I have added corrective footnotes. Thanks, Tim, for a kind and gracious summary within your frame of reference, and I hope someday we can reach a deeper understanding and a shared vision.

Ted Nelson, a professional visionary,1 wrote in 1965 of "Literary Machines,"2 computers that would enable people to write and publish in a new, nonlinear format, which he called hypertext.3 Hypertext was "nonsequential" text, in which a reader was not constrained to read in any particular order, but could follow links and delve into the original document from a short quotation.4 Ted described a futuristic5 project, Xanadu[®6], in which all the world's information7 could be published in hypertext. For example, if you were reading this book in hypertext, you would be able to follow a link from my reference to Xanadu to further details of that project. In Ted's vision, every quotation would have been a link8 back to its source, allowing original authors9 to be compensated by a very small amount each time the quotation was read10. He had the dream of a utopian11 society in which all information could be shared among people who communicated as equals.12

-- Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti,
Weaving the Web.
Harper/San Francisco, 1999, p.5.


Nelson later popularized the hypertext concept in his book Literary Machines. His vision involved implementation of a "docuverse", where all data was stored once, there were no deletions, and all information was accessible by a link from anywhere else. Navigation through the information would be non-linear, depending on each individual's choice of links. This was more than text -- it was hypertext. The web realizes part of this vision, except that there are deletions, and some information is stored in more than one place.

ACM incorporates a principle similar to one named "transcopyright" by Ted Nelson. ACM will hold its copyrighted works on its servers and will give free and unlimited permission to create and copy links to those works or their components. So that readers can locate the context from which an excerpt was drawn, ACM will provide a way of linking a component to its parent work. Readers following links will gain access upon payment of a fee or presentation of a valid authorization certificate to ACM or ACM's agent; ACM or its agent will issue a personalized certificate of ownership to that reader.

- Association of Computing Machinery; ACM Interim Copyright Policy; Version 2; 1995-11-15.

There is need for multiple redundacy in storage as servers crash, wars, natural disasters, government censorship. However, indexes need to be maintained for searches to have value. The ubiquitous 404 not found on the internet, speaks to the impermanence and the mecurial nature of the internet. Libraries are envisioned to be permanent repositories for present and future generations. However, the Babylonian library was destroyed, and so were countless others throughout history. A citizen based library is more than a wikipedia, it is fight against mildew and data rot. It will need vision and a multitude of individuals and organization working together in a coordinated fashion to succeed.

I want to contribute ideas and will serve; how can we attract and get people involved?

[sanjayayogi]

Semantic Web and Human Readable files names

It is a chicken and egg problem - human first, then the machine, yes?

The following from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_web

Humans are capable of using the Web to carry out tasks such as finding the Finnish word for "monkey", reserving a library book, and searching for a low price for a DVD. However, a computer cannot accomplish the same tasks without human direction because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, combining, and acting upon information on the web.

Tim Berners-Lee originally expressed the vision of the semantic web as follows:[6]

I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.

– Tim Berners-Lee, 1999'

Semantic publishing will benefit greatly from the semantic web. In particular, the semantic web is expected to revolutionize scientific publishing, such as real-time publishing and sharing of experimental data on the Internet. This simple but radical idea is now being explored by W3C HCLS group's Scientific Publishing Task Force.

Semantic Web application areas are experiencing intensified interest due to the rapid growth in the use of the Web, together with the innovation and renovation of information content technologies. The Semantic Web is regarded as an integrator across different content and information applications and systems, and provide mechanisms for the realisation of Enterprise Information Systems. The rapidity of the growth experienced provides the impetus for researchers to focus on the creation and dissemination of innovative Semantic Web technologies, where the envisaged ’Semantic Web’ is long overdue. Often the terms ’Semantics’, ’metadata’, ’ontologies’ and ’Semantic Web’ are used inconsistently. In particular, these terms are used as everyday terminology by researchers and practitioners, spanning a vast landscape of different fields, technologies, concepts and application areas. Furthermore, there is confusion with regards to the current status of the enabling technologies envisioned to realise the Semantic Web. In a paper presented by Gerber, Barnard and Van der Merwe [7] the Semantic Web landscape are charted and a brief summary of related terms and enabling technologies are presented. The architectural model proposed by Tim Berners-Lee is used as basis to present a status model that reflects current and emerging technologies [8]

Book:Semantic Web

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book:Semantic_Web

This is a community book, a collection of Wikipedia articles that can be easily saved, rendered electronically, and ordered as a printed book. For information and help on community books in general, see Help:Books (general tips) and WikiProject Wikipedia-Books (questions and assistance).

collection.pdf

The Book: Semantic Web - article collection from Wikipedia

(1.26 MiB) Downloaded 770 times

Attached is collection of Wikipedia articles, that are rendered as a pdf.

[sanjayayogi]

How would my mother scan a book if she could scan a book?

How Much Wood
Would a Woodchuck Chuck

How much wood
would a woodchuck chuck,
if a woodchuck
could chuck wood?

As much wood
As a woodchuck would,
if a woodchuck
could chuck wood.

My mother is 80 years old this year. However, she loves to spend time on her computer, and she has alot of paper from all her pre-computer days, and two houses. She always takes her laptop to Florida for the winter, and she is known for helping all of her neighbors, in her over 55 year only community, with their computer problems. She loves to organize activities for her friends who also enjoy their computers. She even uses Photoshop. Not bad for 80. She also has a digital camera.

There are old men around, who are still pretty handy with tools who I am sure could handle the details of a DIY book scanner rig. There are many older people with visual and other disabilities who she visits regularly. Where she lives, the budget cut back mean there is no longer a bookmobile that comes and she no longer gets to the library the way she used to.

The community, where she lives, has its own lending library which has books the residents contribute. The library has alot of books on the shelf, and when books are lent out, often people have to wait for the popular ones. When they come back to the library my mom puts them on the shelves. They get moved around, lost and misplaced, abused and eventually discarded, completely trashed.

The communtiy also has a book club. It is hard for old people with no car, fixed incomes, to get to Borders which is more than an hour away to buy a book. Sometimes the people just stop coming for lack of a really interesting new book to share that everybody has access to read.

Scanning books could be a great project:

People get to build something, see it work, people get to work together or not, and eventually books that are currently going into the trash, lost, misplaced, never returned will have a digital copy to be shared over the local wifi network which currently connects about 300 people. Sounds like fun...

So what if...

1. A friend of mother got the plans for an easy to build book scanner? She could download the plans from the internet no problem.

2. Mom has a digital camera, and so do her friends. She might even have two these days, they are cheap...

3. She has a book she would like to share. It is not too easy for her to turn pages these days but it is possible on the days when here arthritis is not too bad...

4. My could take pictures of the book she wants, it might take a while, more than an hour, she probably would get tired. Can she sit while she is doing it? Her back gets sore if she stands...

5. She takes out the SD cards from the cameras, (she even knows they are SD cards). She copies the photos into two folders in her laptop, named with the name of the book - something like:

Tom_Sawyer_by_Mark_Twain-ODD

and the other:

Tom_Sawyer_by_Mark_Twain_EVEN

6. Then she moves both folders into another folder that just says: Tom_Sawyer_by_Mark_Twain_scans_FILES-NEED-RENAMING.

Then she zips the folder and uploads it to my website. My mom is pretty savvy with computers - she really is amazing!

7. However, she does not have the inclination, knowledge or patience, to do much more than that. Someone else will need to rename and do any post-processing on the files.

Obviously this is fiction at the moment but this scenario is not so far fetched.

Next chapter: Post processing my mothers book scans