[Upd-discuss] Re: Forgotten Welsh Books

[James Davis]

I received this today. Any thoughts?

James

--
"You're turning into a penguin. Stop it"
http://jamesd.ukgeeks.co.uk/

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Dear Mr Davies

Professor Dai Smith has asked me to respond to your email enquiring about
the project to reprint out of print Welsh classics.  The copyright
situation of the twentieth century Welsh texts varies, but the vast
majority are still in copyright since most of the authors either died well
within the 75 year period during which copyright on written material
remains with the author/estate, or are still alive.  It is not the
intention, then, to make the works freely available online, although
downloadable versions or 'ebooks' might be an option in the future since
all texts will be digitised during the publishing process.  Traditional
publishing methods are the priority here, however, and print on demand
technology will ensure that these books are permanently and easily
available once they have been published in this series.

There is a different project that might be of interest to you.  'Books
from the Past' provides free of charge the complete and searchable texts
of books of national cultural interest.  This project was launched last
May and the first nine texts are available online at
www.booksfromthepast.org.  The software was developed by Culturenet Cymru
(www.culturnetcymru.com) and they host and maintain the site, while the
Welsh Books Council are partners in the project.  More titles are being
digitised this year and we hope that the project will continue to develop
and expand in future years.

The thinking behind this project is similar to that you outline with
regard to music, although perhaps without quite the same copyright
problems.  All the books are out of print (and up to now generally out of
copyright) and extremely difficult to find.  The free online collection
provides international access to works from Wales and will prove an
invaluable resource to scholars and general readers alike in the future.

I have to admit that I am still learning about the intricacies of
copyright and the detail of the creative commons licenses is beyond me at
present - the two projects above have so far been fairly clear-cut.  I
would be very happy to discuss the issues of copyright with you further.

Best wishes
Kirsti
Kirsti Bohata
Swyddog Grantiau Grants Officer
Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru Welsh Books Council

Castell Brychan, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. SY23 2JB
Tel:  01970 624151   Ffacs / Fax:  01970 625385
www.cllc.org.uk     www.gwales.com

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