Most of these texts are in the public domain.
But a few are copyrighted - with permission to store the work
granted by authors and publishers or other copyright holders.
There are many imitators and copycats - but only one Project
Gutenberg, in scope, perseverance, dedication, and
thoroughness.
As copyright expires, thousands of works are added monthly to
the public domain and can be freely replicated and
distributed. Most of these books are out of print and saved by
the Project from obscurity and ultimate oblivion.
The recurrent extension of copyright terms by Congress hampers
this work by restricting the growth of the public domain or
even by removing texts from it. It benefits very few copyright
holders at the expense of universal access to literature and
knowledge.
Hart mourns the rapidly dwindling public domain:
"In the USA, no copyrights will expire from now to 2019!!! It
is even much worse in many other countries, where they
actually removed 20 years from the public domain. Books that
had been legal to publish all of a sudden were not.
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