January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts. I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 02:57:52AM +0000, geni wrote:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
Wow, that's good! I didn't realise that!
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts.
Oh, quite interesting then!
I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Good idea, yeah I think it could be too, though what else could be put in it? I don't know who does the press releases here.
Isabell.
On Mon, 21 Dec 2009, Isabell Long wrote:
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts.
Oh, quite interesting then!
I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Good idea, yeah I think it could be too, though what else could be put in it? I don't know who does the press releases here.
Well there are over 1,300 biographies in Category:1939 deaths to have a look through. John Cassidy was a name that caught my eye as maybe worthwhile mentioning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassidy_(artist) but I've not had more than a glance.
Chrisy
---- Chris McKenna
cmckenna@sucs.org www.sucs.org/~cmckenna
The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart
Antoine de Saint Exupery
Isabell Long wrote:
On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 02:57:52AM +0000, geni wrote:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
Wow, that's good! I didn't realise that!
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts.
Oh, quite interesting then!
I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Good idea, yeah I think it could be too, though what else could be put in it? I don't know who does the press releases here.
King Tut's tomb is strong enough for a press release (here we go again!). Discovered in 1922, only now will the public be able to treat Carter's works as their property.
Other deaths of authors: Havelock Ellis; Ford Madox Ford; Sigmund Freud; Zane Grey; Joseph Roth; W. B. Yeats.
Arthur Rackham the illustrator too.
Charles **
2009/12/21 Isabell Long isabell121@gmail.com:
Good idea, yeah I think it could be too, though what else could be put in it? I don't know who does the press releases here.
I forwarded Geni's message to the comcom list as well, but there's nothing to stop WMUK - very much in line with the open content educational mission.
- d.
2009/12/21 geni geniice@gmail.com:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts. I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Sigmund Freud and W. B. Yeats are the two particularly influential authors this year, I believe - neither UK, but both life+70 jurisdictions.
Arthur Rackham, Havelock Ellis and Ford Madox Ford are both interesting, though neither is particularly well-known now.
2009/12/21 Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk:
2009/12/21 geni geniice@gmail.com:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts. I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Sigmund Freud and W. B. Yeats are the two particularly influential authors this year, I believe - neither UK, but both life+70 jurisdictions.
Arthur Rackham, Havelock Ellis and Ford Madox Ford are both interesting, though neither is particularly well-known now.
I've been putting together a list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Geni/1939_deaths
The ones with stars are the ones I think are most likely to be of interest to us.
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 13:29 +0000, geni wrote:
2009/12/21 Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk:
2009/12/21 geni geniice@gmail.com:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts. I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Sigmund Freud and W. B. Yeats are the two particularly influential authors this year, I believe - neither UK, but both life+70 jurisdictions.
Arthur Rackham, Havelock Ellis and Ford Madox Ford are both interesting, though neither is particularly well-known now.
I've been putting together a list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Geni/1939_deaths
The ones with stars are the ones I think are most likely to be of interest to us.
I didn't see any asterisked authors. That, I think, would be a good target; adding more content to Wikibooks. Secondary to that, if WMUK has any voice talent, or can entice notable figures to do readings, spoken Wikibooks would be a good place to target stuff. Who could read Carter's Journals? And the various other pieces now available? Is Yeats one that UK celebs could be convinced to donate spoken versions of to the Commons?
2009/12/21 Brian McNeil brian.mcneil@wikinewsie.org:
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 13:29 +0000, geni wrote:
2009/12/21 Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.uk:
2009/12/21 geni geniice@gmail.com:
January 1st is Public Domain Day. That is the day that all the works of everyone who died in 1939 enter the public domain. No I'm not the only one to note this creative commons apparently picks up on it:
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11920
The most interesting name I'm aware of this year is Howard Carter who created a lot of paintings and drawings of Egyptian archaeological artifacts. I'm trying to put together more names but I was wounder if it was something a press release could be built around?
Sigmund Freud and W. B. Yeats are the two particularly influential authors this year, I believe - neither UK, but both life+70 jurisdictions.
Arthur Rackham, Havelock Ellis and Ford Madox Ford are both interesting, though neither is particularly well-known now.
I've been putting together a list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Geni/1939_deaths
The ones with stars are the ones I think are most likely to be of interest to us.
I didn't see any asterisked authors. That, I think, would be a good target; adding more content to Wikibooks. Secondary to that, if WMUK has any voice talent, or can entice notable figures to do readings, spoken Wikibooks would be a good place to target stuff. Who could read Carter's Journals? And the various other pieces now available? Is Yeats one that UK celebs could be convinced to donate spoken versions of to the Commons?
Would more be a wikisource thing. There is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Giberne .
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
2009/12/21 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
Draft, then.
Worth noting: "It's A Wonderful Life" only became a popular Christmas movie once it had entered the public domain. So Mr. Ford may be well worth mentioning - people who read will certainly take the opportunity to push his works. Send to the more literary publications?
- d.
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 17:08 +0000, David Gerard wrote:
2009/12/21 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
Draft, then.
Worth noting: "It's A Wonderful Life" only became a popular Christmas movie once it had entered the public domain. So Mr. Ford may be well worth mentioning - people who read will certainly take the opportunity to push his works. Send to the more literary publications?
I took Charles' draft, put it on the wiki, and did a slight rewrite. David's suggestion is an excellent point to add to a detail I inserted - build the membership.
http://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Press_releases/Public_domain_day
David Gerard wrote:
2009/12/21 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
Draft, then.
Worth noting: "It's A Wonderful Life" only became a popular Christmas movie once it had entered the public domain. So Mr. Ford may be well worth mentioning - people who read will certainly take the opportunity to push his works. Send to the more literary publications?
Well, if you wanted Ford Madox Ford in, you'd mention "The Fifth Queen", on the grounds that many more people could tell you who Henry VIII's fifth queen was than are interested in the "unreliable narrator".
I see Brian has started [[Press releases/Public domain day]] on the WMUK wiki. So we can get into detail there. Yes, this might be an upmarket topic: it would be easy to email the London Review of Books, New Statesman, The Spectator. and I'll volunteer to do that once we're good to go. I wasn't so sure at first glance how to email the right person at The Economist, but well worth the effort (huge circulation). The Guardian seems to be shuffling things around and online.
Charles
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 17:31 +0000, Charles Matthews wrote:
David Gerard wrote:
2009/12/21 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
Draft, then.
Worth noting: "It's A Wonderful Life" only became a popular Christmas movie once it had entered the public domain. So Mr. Ford may be well worth mentioning - people who read will certainly take the opportunity to push his works. Send to the more literary publications?
Well, if you wanted Ford Madox Ford in, you'd mention "The Fifth Queen", on the grounds that many more people could tell you who Henry VIII's fifth queen was than are interested in the "unreliable narrator".
I see Brian has started [[Press releases/Public domain day]] on the WMUK wiki. So we can get into detail there. Yes, this might be an upmarket topic: it would be easy to email the London Review of Books, New Statesman, The Spectator. and I'll volunteer to do that once we're good to go. I wasn't so sure at first glance how to email the right person at The Economist, but well worth the effort (huge circulation). The Guardian seems to be shuffling things around and online.
There is, as you point out, a great opportunity to put WMUK before a highbrow audience. Yes, Wikibooks should be alerted to, and invited to contribute to, any release on this. However, the idea of audiobooks, or even single poems from Yeats, was what caught my eye. I have a sneaking suspicion there's one or two UK celebs could be persuaded to records stuff for Commons; getting a "featured audio" on Wikipedia would stroke their egos. Stephen Fry reading his favourite Yeats poem anyone?
WMUK list CC Steve Virgin
Charles Matthews wrote:
Brian McNeil wrote:
Stephen Fry reading his favourite Yeats poem anyone?
Have you seen the recent Doonesbury strand about celeb voices for satnav? This one actually might have some legs.
So Stephen Fry is represented by Hamilton Hodell: http://www.hamiltonhodell.co.uk/page.asp?partid=3
And is so pro-Web it hurts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7926509.stm
So this is to follow up, surely. Who would like to contact the agency, explain that a smallish gesture of recording a poem on own machine and posting it to Commons is something Stephen could do to back up his comment on the BBC page: "The past co-exists"? Which is very Yeatsian. And doing it on New Year's Day would be symbolic timing.
Charles
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 19:23 +0000, Charles Matthews wrote:
WMUK list CC Steve Virgin
Charles Matthews wrote:
Brian McNeil wrote:
Stephen Fry reading his favourite Yeats poem anyone?
Have you seen the recent Doonesbury strand about celeb voices for satnav? This one actually might have some legs.
So Stephen Fry is represented by Hamilton Hodell: http://www.hamiltonhodell.co.uk/page.asp?partid=3
And is so pro-Web it hurts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7926509.stm
So this is to follow up, surely. Who would like to contact the agency, explain that a smallish gesture of recording a poem on own machine and posting it to Commons is something Stephen could do to back up his comment on the BBC page: "The past co-exists"? Which is very Yeatsian. And doing it on New Year's Day would be symbolic timing.
I would be more than happy to draft something and have a few people pick it over before sending. I would like to actually be cheeky enough to capitalise on the WikiVoices session Mike Peel and I are doing on Wednesday with Jimmy Wales. That is, if a good appeal for a "far more valuable than money" donation can be drawn up by Wednesday, why not ask Jimmy to send it to Stephen Fry's agent?
Anyone else we could target as poetry lovers and such? I know there is the talent within the Wikimedia fold to make up for sub-optimal recording conditions but, I do see an opportunity to make works entering the public domain a cause for celebration. So, who among the UK and Ireland's celebrities might want to do their bit for the Wikimedia fundraiser by donating their voice to a recording of Yeats, available from January 1, 2010?
Brian McNeil wrote:
On Mon, 2009-12-21 at 19:23 +0000, Charles Matthews wrote:
WMUK list CC Steve Virgin
Charles Matthews wrote:
Brian McNeil wrote:
Stephen Fry reading his favourite Yeats poem anyone?
Have you seen the recent Doonesbury strand about celeb voices for satnav? This one actually might have some legs.
So Stephen Fry is represented by Hamilton Hodell: http://www.hamiltonhodell.co.uk/page.asp?partid=3
And is so pro-Web it hurts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7926509.stm
So this is to follow up, surely. Who would like to contact the agency, explain that a smallish gesture of recording a poem on own machine and posting it to Commons is something Stephen could do to back up his comment on the BBC page: "The past co-exists"? Which is very Yeatsian. And doing it on New Year's Day would be symbolic timing.
I would be more than happy to draft something and have a few people pick it over before sending. I would like to actually be cheeky enough to capitalise on the WikiVoices session Mike Peel and I are doing on Wednesday with Jimmy Wales. That is, if a good appeal for a "far more valuable than money" donation can be drawn up by Wednesday, why not ask Jimmy to send it to Stephen Fry's agent?
I'm going to put some technical issues up on the Talk page of the draft press release. As has been pointed out on this list, and as was clear from the reaction I had on Wikisource to the 1939 deaths I listed, the difference between the UK and US public domain positions is something serious here. We need to steer round that. Also the audio recording issue brings up a file format problem (should be .spx from the point of view of Commons) and this can't just be waved away. Whoever deals with this needs to be on top of the format issue (from research last night it looks to me like a MIDI file could be converted, but that needs more work). So right now I'm not sure about elaborating the plan any further.
Charles
2009/12/21 Charles Matthews charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com:
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.
I would be careful with using Grey as an example - he's definitely American, and their status is "complicated". I'm not sure we can say the copyright status of a randomly chosen Grey work will change in a couple of weeks...
If we're going to use a non-British author, I'd go with Yeats.
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