Most of the books I read on my e-reader are protected by some form of digital rights management (DRM). The e-books that I read which are borrowed from the Toronto Public Library are protected by DRM in a way which prevents my having access to them beyond the twenty-one day borrowing period.
The DRM has always made it clear who owns the book that I am reading. The point is furthered when the 21 days are completed while I’m reading the book in question and my device automatically turns to the main menu - preventing me from completing the book.
DRM ensured that I did not own the book in question. But the idea of e-book ownership significantly changed for me when I first came across Project Gutenberg, a unique kind of digital library. Their collection largely consists of thousands of e-books which have fallen out of copyright. It’s become a great resource for texts which are considered to be “classics” such as the entire bibliography of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Aristotle, H.G. Wells, and Leo Tolstoy.
But there is one notable exception. One of Project Gutenberg’s champions is critically acclaimed and currently living science-fiction author Cory Doctorow. Apart from his books, Doctorow has gained a reputation for his unique views on copyright – believing that intellectual property should not be monopolized and that copyright laws should be liberalized to the point where all digital media can be shared for free.
Not wanting to look like a hypocrite, Doctorow has made many of his most famous and sought after books available for free on Gutenberg just like the other items available in their collection. They are some of the only items available in their collection which are currently protected by copyright, but which are made available through permission.
Before discovering Project Gutenberg – or even the Internet Archive – my idea of ownership was that I had to physically go to Indigo or an online retailer in order for me to find the possibility of owning a copy of the book for myself. Gutenberg provided an outlet that resembled the way one would obtain a copy of a work through internet piracy but without any of the legal issues that come from using something like the Pirate Bay.
The idea became even more strange when I discovered that Doctorow’s works, which remain in copyright, had the same availability through Gutenberg as the works of Plato or Shakespeare. Even for those of us who are familiar with his unusual views of copyright still find it strange that no financial transaction has to occur in order to obtain his most critically acclaimed work, Little Brother.
It’s unreasonable to assume that all authors will make their best-known works available for free in their lifetime like Doctorow because they rely on royalty cheques to pay their bills. But it’s irrefutable that ideas which are similar to his, as well as the presence of digital libraries such as Project Gutenberg, has dramatically altered the way I can become the owner of a book.
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