Greg Bear has kindly shared a blog he posted on his website about John Carter, the recently released film based on the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

RC

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JOHN CARTER’S GREATEST CHALLENGE

By Greg Bear

Some of my favorite movies–and likely some of yours, as well–were critical and box office failures. Too often, smelling blood, lesser critics joined in like a pack of howling dogs and crooned vicious melodies about, say, “Citizen Kane,” or “The Right Stuff,” or “Return to Oz,” or even the amazing, brilliant mess that is David Lynch’s “Dune.”

The same critics may have also gone after “Star Wars” or more recently, “Avatar,” but they simply didn’t matter. The deluge swept them away.

Pauline Kael and Andrew Sarris famously panned “2001, A Space Odyssey,” and then reconsidered it in later reviews–but they were not alone in reassessing.

I’m not saying that all these movies are equal. I’m not even claiming that “John Carter” is a great film. As my friend Mark Bourne has said, great movies may or may not be of the same quality as personal favorites. But all of them are worth seeing, and many of them I’ve viewed dozens of times.

I’m now going to put “John Carter” in that category. A few wretched White Apes–pardon the allusion!–at the New York Times have gone after the movie with claws sharpened and dipped in poison, playing out another kind of culture war that goes back almost a century–that is, a deep aversion to pop culture in general, and anything set west of the Mississippi in particular. (Good grief, in politics, the same sort of thing is happening–what’s bringing out the hideous trolls of our past with so much misplaced conviction?)

Back in the day (remember, film fans?) the New York Times refused to review John Ford’s westerns. They’d grudgingly take on his other movies, but his westerns–like all westerns–were déclassé and not unworthy of their notice. Since then, the TIMES has regularly pilloried science fiction, fantasy, comics books, children’s literature, YA literature (which often tends to be fantasy or science fiction) and nearly every other branch of art or story-telling destined to appeal to the great unwashed, or unlettered. Or the young at heart.

And now they’re back at it again, assessing “John Carter” as a failure both as commerce and as art, because in large part it is based on a worn-out, clichéd pulp novel, filled with sword play and monsters, oh my. No matter that Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “A Princess of Mars” laid the groundwork for much of pulp fiction to come, influenced writers as diverse as Ray Bradbury, Leigh Brackett, Robert E. Howard, and Michael Chabon, (and me!) and has been read and thoroughly enjoyed by millions of people around the world to this very day.

Without “A Princess of Mars” there would be no “Star Wars” or “Avatar,” of course. There would be fewer names on the modern map of Mars–and likely far fewer engineers and scientists to build those space ships and shoot them into the outer void.

In 1911, Burroughs was happy to incorporate the latest speculations about Mars–derived from the work of the immensely popular astronomer Pervical Lowell, and not thoroughly discredited until the 1960s. To those speculations he added a bit of H. Rider Haggard, a bit of Kipling, and a bit of the then-popular Graustarkian romance, where a brave commoner is launched into royal complications in an exotic mythical land.

George Lucas, decades later, owed a tremendous debt to Burroughs. Tatooine is much like Mars, with wonderfully strange creatures, suspended racers, and huge flying barges with swiveling deck guns.

And no wonder. Leigh Brackett, co-screen-writer on The Empire Strikes Back, often wrote pulp tales herself–some set on Mars–and did it quite well.

In turn, she inspired Ray Bradbury to revisit and revise Burroughs’s Mars in The Martian Chronicles, an enduring classic. Brackett went on to craft screenplays based on the pulp tradition that the Times still finds so discreditable: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. She co-wrote that screenplay with William Faulkner. Faulkner sold his first short story to a pulp magazine, Weird Tales. So did Tennessee Williams. And I strongly suspect they all read and enjoyed, in their younger years at least, A Princess of Mars.

We would all be the poorer for not allowing future generations of young readers a chance to fall into Burrough’s amazing pulp story of adventure and imagination, still powerful and fun after all these years.

Elegant? In spotty fashion, sure. It has both the merits and the debits of a first novel. Vigorous, energetic? Absolutely. And filled with an overarching philosophy–racial tolerance–that many people of that day, back in 1911, perhaps even the reporters of the New York Times, would have found extremely objectionable.

After all, John Carter, a southron gentleman from Virginia, romances a dusky, sexy, bare-bosomed, and strong-willed female of another race, another planet–and another reproductive persuasion. Dejah Thoris and her people, like most Martian species, are oviparous. They hatch from eggs. No belly buttons. Wow! The teenage mind boggles. (John Carter’s creators have restored the Princess’s navel. More’s the pity, I say.)

Marvelous, groundbreaking stuff.

But I’m not here just to defend Burroughs. He was not always so racially tolerant. His Tarzan novels present quite a few teachable moments for our professors–but no more so than, say, Thomas Wolfe.

Hell, in California, they named a town after one of Burroughs’ most enduring characters–Tarzana.

The New York Times can’t say or do much about his historical stature or his popularity. Nobody cares what they think on such matters. But they can whine about a somewhat troubled, big-budget movie, and do their best to damage its prospects, and they have–as have many other critics, inside and outside of the so-called fan community.

Criticizing a film is what critics do. We give them a pass, whatever their opinions about the film itself. But the Times critics–and others following in their wake, including here at the Seattle Times–have demonstrated a deplorable lack of knowledge about the original source material, the traditions from which it sprung, and the heirs who have borrowed from it ever since.

So–what’s wrong with “John Carter”? Quite a few small things, actually. Intro, timing, a bit of dash about the acting and perhaps not enough brio in the screenplay–though there’s a fair amount.

But none of this stood in the way of my thoroughly enjoying this sincere, remarkably faithful, and often clever adaptation of Burroughs’ classic. It’s beautifully rendered and designed, the acting is pretty much just fine, the princess is bright-eyed and pretty, John Carter is handsome and troubled and just vulnerable enough to fit the mold, the Tharks are marvelous in their strange, violent sympathies, and the special effects blend almost seamlessly into a rapidly-flowing story.

John Carter’s leaping prowess on Mars comes straight from Burroughs–up to a point. But the filmmakers seem well aware that Burroughs’s example likely suggested to two young science fiction fans named Siegel and Shuster the abilities of one more strange visitor from another planet: Superman. And so, they have ramped up Carter’s abilities just a tad, to reflect the early years of Action Comics.

It’s an allusion.

The New York Times didn’t get it.

Furthermore, they seem to lack an understanding of the cultural tides of that pre-war era. While astral projection was quite the thing in 1911, our modern filmmakers rightly decided it might be better to tech it up a bit. Now it’s no more unlikely or unbelievable than the mechanisms in Buck Rogers or The Fly or Star Trek.

In other words, still fantastic and wonderful and scary.

To sum up, “John Carter” is a beautiful, relaxing, and occasionally enchanting chunk of entertainment. It deals out, with real love, many of the most interesting bits of the novel, and handles the highly colored characters with respect. The ends on just the right note.

Frankly, I’m happy with that ending. If there are no sequels, we can make up our own stories for John Carter’s return to Barsoom and his beloved Dejah Thoris.

It took me back, frankly, to those halcyon days when I sat in theaters watching other Disney films, such as 20,000
Leagues Under the Sea or Treasure Island or Swiss Family Robinson. Bravo to Disney’s execs for recognizing their own history, and doing their level best to follow through.

I’m going to watch this film again. I might add it to my list of favorites. Burroughs fans have been waiting for it to happen for at least a century. Kirk Douglas, it is rumored, wanted to portray John Carter in the 1950s! Does it fulfill all those expectations? Actually, for me, it goes the distance quite well. I highly recommend you give it a shot.

It’s time–as with all those films mentioned above–to say to the carping critics…

Well, a gentleman does not resort to such language. But I finger the leather harness of my radium pistol and think dark thoughts.

When anyone tries to score points by pillorying a classic, there’s a real need to get the historical facts straight. Otherwise, at least one stern-faced and eternally young writer out here is going to give them all an F-.

Kaor!

A while back we wrote about an alien race’s scheme to capture Jupiter (Psst. Want to Buy a Hot Planet?) and haul it out of the solar system. E-Reads happens to carry another book about moving a planet, Greg Bear’s Moving Mars. Aside from the astonishing but completely valid scientific basis for transporting a planet from one locus to another, its a wonderful novel about a young colony yearning to free itself from the influence of the parent world’s exploitive government. The parent world happens to be Earth. And the government is not happy. Not happy at all. Its planning to punish the wayward colonists, and there’s absolutely nothing the populace of the Red Planet can do.

Or is there? There’s this nerdy kid Charles who has a scheme so risky and preposterous that in all likelihood it will blow up in his face like some schoolboy chem lab experiment. Except its not a chem lab. It’s a planet.

Well, how many schoolboys have let that discourage them?

But Casseia believes in him. She’s the rebellious daughter of a conservative family, and she sees Charles’s cockeyed idea as fuel for the student protests she’s leading. It’s hard to imagine a less likely love object than Charles, but maybe Casseia could learn to get attached to someone who thinks he knows how to save their world. Maybe this tender love story explains why it wasn’t just the science fiction reviewers that loved Moving Mars (“…an accomplished, thoroughly mature novel that should be placed at the top of anyone’s ‘to be read’ stack” – Science Fiction Age), but the romance reviewers too (“…a grand adventure in hard science fiction” – Romantic Times).

E-Reads carries a great list of Greg Bear’s backlist titles and there are more to come!

- Richard Curtis

(Above image of Mars courtesy of NASA.)

In Nebula and Hugo Award winner Greg Bear’s Eon [now available in Kindle for the first time], the arrival of a 300-kilometer long stone was the answer to humanity’s desperate plea to end the threat of nuclear war. Inside the deep recesses of the stone lay the remnants of a human society versed in English, Russian and Chinese. The artifacts of this familiar people foretell a great Death caused by the ravages of war. Deeper still within the stone is the Way. For some the Way meant salvation from death, for others it was a parallel world where loved ones live again. Here is some of the outpouring of acclaim for Eon:

“Eon may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet.”
—The Washington Post

“Sharing aspects of Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, its uniqueness arises from Bear’s bold imagination. Bear is a writer of passionate vision. Eon is his grandest work yet.”
—Locus

“A powerful, imaginative novel.”
—Library Journal

“The only word for it really is blockbuster. It is big and breathtaking; the story and the concepts are ambitious to the point of mind boggling.”
—Isaac Asimov’s SF Magazine

Now, in Eternity, Bear returns to the Earth of Eon and it’s clear that the first novel was a prequel to an even grander story. The crew of the asteroid-starship Thistledown has thwarted an attempt to sever the link to the Way, an endless corridor that spans universes. The asteroid had settled into orbit around Earth and discovered that the tunnel snaked away, forming a contained universe of its own. Forty years later, war breaks out to reopen The Way. And humankind is about to discover just how completely it has underestimated its ancient adversaries.

Eternity completes a trilogy that includes the prequel Legacy, and all three titles are now available for download at E-Reads as well more than a dozen other unforgettable works by the author rightfully described as the heir to the late Arthur C. Clarke’s mantle.

RC

In Legacy, the prequel to Eon, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown. The ruling body of Axis City, the Hexamon, has decreed that other worlds reached by The Way must be left untouched as an insurance against future needs of the human race. But then the Hexamon hear of a group of clandestine colonists who have settled on one of the new worlds. Olmy Ap Sennon is an eager young career soldier who must go and investigate this illegal colony, and at the same time confront his own humanity. As he witnesses the hardship and beauty of the outlaw human colony, he learns what it means to struggle with war, ecological disaster, love, and death.

Aside from the physical force that propels planets around stars, there’s little short of a cataclysmic collision that can move them out of their orbits.  Unless you happen to be a science fiction author with an imagination as far-reaching as a galaxy.  And E-Reads happens to have not one such author but two.

Aside from the astonishing but completely valid scientific basis for transporting a planet from one locus to another, Greg Bear’s Moving Mars is a completely gripping work of fiction. A young colony yearns to free itself from the influence of the parent world’s exploitative government. The parent world happens to be Earth. And the government is not happy. Not happy at all. Its planning to punish the wayward colonists with a barrage of missiles, and there’s absolutely nothing the populace of the Red Planet can do.

Or is there? There’s this nerdy kid Charles who has a scheme so risky and preposterous that in all likelihood it will blow up in his face like some schoolboy chem lab experiment. Except its not a chem lab. It’s a planet.

Well, how many schoolboys have let that discourage them?

But Casseia, the novel’s beautiful and determined heroine, believes in him. She’s the rebellious daughter of a conservative family, and she sees Charles’s cockeyed idea as fuel for the student protests she’s leading. It’s hard to imagine a less likely love object than Charles, but maybe Casseia could learn to get attached to someone who thinks he knows how to save their world. Maybe this tender love story explains why it wasn’t just the science fiction reviewers that loved Moving Mars (“…an accomplished, thoroughly mature novel that should be placed at the top of anyone’s ‘to be read’ stack” – Science Fiction Age), but the romance reviewers too (“…a grand adventure in hard science fiction” – Romantic Times).

Besides Moving Mars, E-Reads carries a great list of Greg Bear’s backlist titles

We said there was a second novel about moving a planet.  In Donald Moffitt’s The Jupiter Theft an alien race schemes to capture the largest satellite and haul it out of the solar system (Psst. Want to Buy a Hot Planet?). About this book we gasped “Moffitt’s concepts dwarf our vocabulary for huge. Colossal, gigantic, immense, mammoth, good words one and all. But they still don’t touch his vision. Astronomical – yes, now we’re getting somewhere. That word seems consonant with the idea of capturing a gaseous planet to use as fuel. Astronomical. That’s Donald Moffitt and that’s The Jupiter Theft.”

Richard Curtis

Dr. Gregory Newby, Chief Executive and Director of Project Gutenberg, issued a public apology to Greg Bear, Astrid Anderson Bear, and unnamed “others”, for a “determination of non-renewal” that was in error.  He said he was ordering removal of “The Escape,” the work that provoked the Bears’ complaint, from the Project Gutenberg collections and catalog. You can read that complaint here.

Below are the pertinent passages of Dr. Newby’s letter.  However, it does not address the question of liability for possible damages resulting from release of the work into the public domain and subsequent exploitation by publishers and other third parties.

Richard Curtis

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Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director

Dear Greg, Astrid, and others:

My apologies for my long delay in responding. As promised in
September, I discussed the situation with one of Project Gutenberg’s
copyright lawyers. This particular lawyer had previously been very
helpful in preparing and then providing legal advice and feedback on
our procedures for determining non-renewal status.

Our lawyer advised that our non-renewal determination for The Escape
was in error. Therefore, on October 1, I removed The Escape from the
Project Gutenberg collections and catalog and announced its removal
to our mailing list.

On behalf of Project Gutenberg, I apologize for the error.

The error occurred because we did not know that Brainwave was a
complete publication of the serial parts of The Escape. We did know
from the publication of The Escape in 1953 that it was the first part
of a serialization, but did not know that Brainwave, from 1954, was
the title of the complete serialization.

We are working on enhancements to our procedures for serial works so
that we are more likely to find variations in titles such as happened
with Brainwave.

As a result of your complaint, we have received clarification from our
lawyer on situations where individual parts of entire works are
published serially, but only some of the parts, or only the entire
work but not the serial parts, are renewed. Until we received this
clarification, our procedure was that each part must have a separate
renewal for its first publication.

My long delay in responding is because our newly revised procedures
are not yet posted on our Web site. We’ve had some exchanges with the lawyer I mentioned, as well as among the Project Gutenberg copyright team and production volunteers. I do hope to have the revised procedures for non-renewals in place soon, and meanwhile Project Gutenberg has put a hold on public domain determinations for non-renewals.

*****************

For the complete text of Dr. Newby’s email, click here.

And for a complete archive of E-Reads postings related to piracy, infringement and other unauthorized use of copyrighted works, click here.

Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director

Dear Greg, Astrid, and others:

My apologies for my long delay in responding. As promised in
September, I discussed the situation with one of Project Gutenberg’s
copyright lawyers. This particular lawyer had previously been very
helpful in preparing and then providing legal advice and feedback on
our procedures for determining non-renewal status.

Our lawyer advised that our non-renewal determination for The Escape
was in error. Therefore, on October 1, I removed The Escape from the
Project Gutenberg collections and catalog and announced its removal
to our mailing list.

On behalf of Project Gutenberg, I apologize for the error.

The error occurred because we did not know that Brainwave was a
complete publication of the serial parts of The Escape. We did know
from the publication of The Escape in 1953 that it was the first part
of a serialization, but did not know that Brainwave, from 1954, was
the title of the complete serialization.

We are working on enhancements to our procedures for serial works so
that we are more likely to find variations in titles such as happened
with Brainwave.

As a result of your complaint, we have received clarification from our
lawyer on situations where individual parts of entire works are
published serially, but only some of the parts, or only the entire
work but not the serial parts, are renewed. Until we received this
clarification, our procedure was that each part must have a separate
renewal for its first publication.

My long delay in responding is because our newly revised procedures
are not yet posted on our Web site. We’ve had some exchanges with the lawyer I mentioned, as well as among the Project Gutenberg copyright team and production volunteers. I do hope to have the revised procedures for non-renewals in place soon, and meanwhile Project Gutenberg has put a hold on public domain determinations for
non-renewals.

In the meantime, I will summarize for you the main points that allowed
the renewal for Brainwave to apply to The Escape. Then, I will
provide a listing of the titles by Poul Anderson that we are working
with. That way, you might want to confirm whether our bibliographic
research (on title variations) and copyright research (on renewal
records) seems to be correct.

I would also like to offer to ask our lawyer to communicate directly
with your lawyer on any of the topics we have covered. If you would
prefer such an approach, please provide me contact information for
your lawyer, and I will give the information to our lawyer.

Here are the main points of variation from our old procedures as
they relate to what we have corresponded on:

- variant titles, new reprints, compilations, and other republications
of items need to be identified as part of our bibliographic research,
within the time span for valid renewals

- in serial works, the serial parts are considered to be part of the
same act of authorship as the complete work. Thus, renewals for the
parts, or the whole, may apply to the other parts
(this applied to The Escape)

- renewals due the 28th year after first publication may actually
appear in the copyright registry in the 27th, 28th, 29th or 30th year,
and still be valid

- for serial parts, our conservative stance is that renewals from the
25th through 32nd year for any serial part, or the whole, including
any type of republication, will be taken to apply to any parts within
that time span
(this applied to The Escape)

- copyrights or renewals outside of the time spans listed above, for
any type of republication, are not applicable to earlier publication.
That is, serial parts or whole works published but not renewed do not
become renewed by later republication outside of the 2-year (for
non-serials) or 4-year (for serials) window.
(this applies to Industrial Revolution)

By the way, we are checking again on whether the 1965 republication
Industrial Revolution was subsequently renewed.

Here are the items we have already published, along with their
Project Gutenberg eBook number:

Duel on Syrtis, by Poul William Anderson 32436
The Sensitive Man, by Poul William Anderson 31501
Industrial Revolution, by Poul William Anderson 30971
The Valor of Cappen Varra, by Poul William Anderson 29542
The Burning Bridge, by Poul William Anderson 22554
Security, by Poul William Anderson 22239

Finally, here is the listing of titles we are working with, along with
a synopsis of our bibliographic and renewal research.

“Security” by Poul Anderson. Originally published in _Space Science
Fiction_ February 1953. No publication after SSF 1953 until 2007.

“The Burning Bridge” by Poul Anderson. First published in Astounding
Science Fiction January 1960. Astounding January 1960 renewed as
RE-322-832 with a claim limitation of NEW MATTER: compilation and all
editorial material. No publication after Astounding 1960 until 2007.

“Industrial Revolution” by Winston P. Sanders. First publication was
in Analog September 1963. Analog September 1963 renewed as RE-517-946
with a claim limitation of NEW MATTER: compilation and editorial
material. We found the renewal for the other Poul Anderson 1963
publications. RE0000562489 does not include “Industrial
Revolution”. Next publication after Analog September 1963 is in Analog
3 in 1965. This one was apparently retitled to “The Rogue” in 1970
when combined with other Flying Mountain stories.

“The Valor of Cappen Varra” by Poul Anderson. Originally published in
“Fantastic Universe” by King-Size Publications, New York, NY in the
January 1957 issue. The next publication found was in Swords and
Sorcery December 1963.

“The Sensitive Man” by Poul Anderson. Originally published in
“Fantastic Universe” by King-Size Publications, New York, NY in the
January 1954 issue. The next publication was found in Beyond the
Beyond in August 1969.

“The Chapter Ends” by Poul Anderson. Originally published in “Dynamic
Science Fiction” by Columbia Publications Inc, New York in the January
1954 issue. From the James Gunn contribution, the original filing
number is B00000442865. The next publication after DSF January 1954 is
in Adventures in the Far Future / Tales of Outer Space in 1954. After
that is Novelets of Science Fiction in 1963. We did not find a renewal
for Adventures in the Far Future or Tales of Outer Space. (We did find a
renewal for Behind the Black Nebula by L. Ron Hubbard from that
anthology. RE0000146004 on A00000155444.)

“Duel on Syrtis” by Poul Anderson. Originally published in Planet
Stories March 1951 by Love Romance Publishing Co. Inc., New York,
NY. After the PS March 1951 the next publication found is Strangers
from Earth in 1961.

“Sentiment, Inc.” by Poul Anderson. First published in Science Fiction
Stories with a 1953 copyright statement by Columbia Publications,
Inc. Science Fiction Stories was a periodical with an irregular
publishing history. 1953 had one issue. Next publication was in
The Weird Ones in July 1962.

Included for completeness, but already determined to be renewed:
“The Escape” by Poul Anderson. It appears to have been first published
in the U.S. and British editions of “Space Science Fiction” Volume 2
Number 2 September 1953 simultaneously. After the SSF September 1953 publication it was published by Ballantine in 1954. Brainwave
renewed.

Again, my apologies for the long delay in this correspondence. I do
anticipate we will have a revised procedure description online soon,
but did not want to delay further before sending this correspondence.

With best regards,
Greg

Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation http://gutenberg.org
A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization with EIN 64-6221541

** This message is granted to the public domain **

By misreading copyright law Project Gutenberg may have infringed the rights of some authors and improperly put their books into the public domain, say science fiction author Greg Bear and Astrid Anderson Bear, his wife and daughter of another SF author, Poul Anderson.  Gutenberg’s release of several Poul Anderson works into the public domain provoked an investigation by the couple, who have issued the statement reproduced below in its entirety.

RC

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The online site Project Gutenberg (PG)  is systematically declaring copyrights void in many literary works published in the 1940s, 1950s, and later, with a special focus on stories published in science fiction pulp magazines. Project Gutenberg then makes these works freely available on the internet though their website, where the scanned texts are further disseminated by manybooks.net and other online text outlets.

After conducting legal research on the LEXIS database of legal cases, decisions, and precedents, we have demonstrated conclusively that PG was making incorrect determinations regarding public domain status in many, many works that originally appeared in magazine form. The Poul Anderson estate has been able to get one work, “The Escape”, that PG had firmly declared to be public domain, removed from their site. PG’s original reasoning was that since the magazine it appeared in had never actually filed for copyright, the work was unprotected. “The Escape”, printed in 1953, was the first half of Anderson’s well-known novel BRAINWAVE, which was published and properly copyrighted the following year.

However, even if ‘The Escape” had not been published as a novel, it would have remained under copyright protection until 1981 (28 years) and been eligible for copyright renewal. Authors of that era, and Anderson in particular, were very aware of the need to renew copyrights, and typically meticulously kept their copyright protections up to date. Copyright law for works created more recently is much easier: life plus 70 years. (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, 1998).

Why is a work that appeared in a magazine that did not file proper copyright paperwork protected by copyright law? The opinion in a major case in the US 2nd Circuit Court, Goodis v. United Artists Television, explains: ”. . . “We unanimously conclude that where a magazine has purchased the right of first publication under circumstances which show that the author has no intention to donate his work to the public, copyright notice in the magazine’s name is sufficient to obtain a valid copyright on behalf of the beneficial owner, the author or proprietor.” The opinion goes on at length regarding the creation of copyright at the time of publication. The full text of Goodis is available here.

A second major case in copyright law, Abend v. MCA, Inc., Universal Film Exchange, James Stewart, estate of Alfred Hitchcock, et al, in the 9th Circuit, upholds this ruling and references Goodis lavishly. The full text of Abend is available here.

According to an email from Project Gutenberg’s CEO, Dr. Greg Newby, PG has changed their procedures for research of copyright non-renewal following the takedown of the Anderson work, although as of this writing (11/21/10) they have not posted these changes on their website. Dr. Newby says PG has also put a hold on public domain determinations for non-renewals. They do not seem to be reviewing the status of works already posted.

Authors and estates with works that are listed as public domain on PG’s site need to check out the true copyright status of those works, If they are posted on PG in error, PG needs to be notified via a DMCA notice. This is a powerful tool, created by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. A DMCA notice is a legal document that states the rights of the copyright holder and demands that illegally posted material be taken down. For a summary of the DMCA in general, go here. There are many online forms for the DMCA notices, such as this one.

DMCA notices also need to be filed with other sites such as manybooks.net, demanding removal of the texts from the sites. The DMCAs may not be honored until PG has pulled a title, as PG is considered the “gold standard” of copyright determination – all titles available there are thought (wrongly) to be free and clear for exploitation by anyone. Small, independent publishers are taking advantage of these treasures and making physical copies, usually with print-on-demand technology, and selling them through Amazon and other sites. Estates and authors should search out these publishers and make their rights known. Estates and authors can demand that publication stop immediately, and that all proceeds be turned over to them as the rightful copyright holder. It should be noted that these publishers don’t feel they are pirates, they feel they are merely taking advantage of opportunities that are perfectly legal. They are wrong, and need to be put in the right of it.

In general, Project Gutenberg is doing a tremendous service by making available texts that have truly long since fallen out of copyright, but they are clearly overstepping their original mandate. They are not merely exploiting orphan works, but practicing a wholesale kidnapping of works that are under copyright protection. Authors and estates need to aggressively take back what belongs to them.

– Astrid Anderson Bear
Greg Bear

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For a complete E-Reads archive on piracy, visit Pirate Central.

A starship hurtles through the emptiness of space. Its destination—unknown. Its purpose—a mystery. Its history—lost.

Now, one man wakes up. Ripped from a dream of a new home—a new planet and the woman he was meant to love in his arms—he finds himself, wet, naked, and freezing to death. The dark halls are full of monsters but trusting other survivors he meets might be the greater danger.

All he has are questions—Who is he? Where are they going? What happened to the dream of a new life? What happened to the woman he loved? What happened to Hull 03?

All will be answered, if he can survive. Uncover the mystery. Fix the ship. Find a way home.

Multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction master Greg Bear’s fantastic new novel, Hull Zero Three, published today, is an edge-of-your seat thrill ride through the darkest reaches of space.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described Hull Zero Three this way: “Not for those who prefer their space opera simpleminded, this beautifully written tale where nothing is as it seems will please readers with a well-developed sense of wonder. Booklist calls it “One of Bear’s most thought-provoking and well-crafted novels to date.”

And Dan Simmons, Hugo Award-winning author of the classic Hyperion science fiction quartet, says, “Greg Bear’s voice is a resonant, clear chord of quality binding some of the best SF of the 20th Century to the short list of science-savvy, sophisticated, top-notch speculative fiction of the 21st. More than a grace note, Hull Zero Three is a compelling allegro in the growing symphony of Greg Bear’s finest work.”

See the gripping trailer for Hull Zero Three below.

Have you caught up on all your Greg Bears? To view his rich E-Reads backlist, visit Greg Bear’s E-Reads author page.

And if you loved his near-future FBI thriller Quantico you won’t want to miss the sequel Mariposa, just published in paperback.

RC

At long last The Forge of God, one of Greg Bear’s greatest science fiction masterpieces, is available as an e-book.

On July 26th, Arthur Gordon learns that Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter, has disappeared. Not hiding, not turned black, but gone.

On September 28th, Edward Shaw finds an error in the geological records of Death Valley. A cinder cone was left off the map. Could it be new? Or, stranger yet, could it be artificial? The answer may be lying beside it—a dying Guest who brings devastating news for Edward and for Planet Earth.

As more unexplained phenomena spring up around the globe—a granite mountain appearing in Australia, sounds emanating from the Earth’s core, flashes of light amongst the asteroids—it becomes clear to some that the end is approaching, and there is nothing we can do.

In The Forge of God, award-winning author Greg Bear describes the final days of the world on both a massive, scientific scale and in the everyday, emotional context of individual human lives. Facing the destruction of all they know, some people turn to God, others to their families, and a few turn to saviors promising escape from a planet tearing apart.

Will they make it in time? And who gets left behind to experience the last moments of beauty and chaos on Earth?

Nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1987 and for Hugo and Locus Awards in 1988, The Forge of God is an engrossing read, breathtaking in its scope and in its detail.

Forge of God garnered so many superlative reviews it coruscates like a diamond…

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“…Never have I read another novel that changed my outlook on the world the way that The Forge of God has. I read the book a little over three years ago and I still remember it vividly. Bear’s portrayal of mankind’s reaction to Earth’s inevitable destruction is disturbingly true to reality. Despair, apathy, quiet rage, hopelessness, its all painted into this magic work with morbid mastery.”

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“Simply the most stimulating novel that I have ever read.”

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“Literate hard-science or alien invasion novels are no longer rare, but a book such as this, which effectively blends these concepts and is also compellingly written, is a joy to behold.”

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“Novels don’t get much better than this. Bear really penned a true classic here. I’ve read many different versions of the end of the Earth, but this one truly spooked me…. This book affected me in ways thousands of other novels could not, and has left a haunting impression. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys great writing at its absolute best…”

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If you prefer to read The Forge of God in Tor mass market paperback click here.

And don’t miss the incredible sequel, Anvil of Stars, published in paperback and e-book by E-Reads. Here’s the description:

The Forge of God described the destruction of Earth itself by self-replicating robots, Von Neumann machines designed to use the planet’s mass to create more robotic creatures and spread throughout the Galaxy. Only a few humans have survived, aided by a mysterious alien race known only as “The Benefactors”, who arrived at Earth too late.

Now the small group of human survivors is determined to track down the criminal race who launched the planet killers. Humanity is given a starship by The Benefactors, and driven only by revenge they set out to find the unknown beings who are responsible for the destruction of Earth, and many other worlds.