indological digital library

[Antonio Ferreira-Jardim]

Dear colleagues,

I am not aware of a digital library of specifically indological pdf-s,
however I equally agree that it would be an excellent idea.

As far as I can see, most of the scanned texts in the DLI are from
books published in India at least 40 years ago. Most of the pdfs of
books published in Europe or the USA are more than 60 years old. Many
(if not most?) of the total amount of pdfs are of printed works which
are now completely inaccessible on both the antiquarian and in-print
market. I also note that the DLI pledges to remove a pdf from
circulation upon the payment of a fee from the original publisher.

Given these circumstances, I am not aware of any case law precedent or
legislative requirement in the Indian jurisdiction which would prevent
source materials of this nature being made public on the grounds of
copyright breach. That said, India may be party to various
international agreements relating to intellectual copyright that may
preclude certain public access to these texts. However, given that the
project seems (unless I am mistaken) to be almost entirely GOI-funded
and supported, I would be interested to see what legal remedies in
which legal jurisdictions would even be available to a publisher
alleging copyright breach!

The DLI intends to digitise a vast mass of precious MSS and literature
previously unavailable to scholars. I would personally hope that
vexatious issues of copyright for rare, out-of-print materials do not
hinder this excellent endeavour or other efforts akin thereto.

Perhaps a statement of support by scholars is in order?

Yours sincerely,

Antonio Ferreira-Jardim
University of Queensland

On 4/5/07, JN <jneuss at arcor.de> wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> on Wed, 04 Apr 2007 10:46:51 +0200 Dominik Wujastyk <ucgadkw at UCL.AC.UK>
> wrote:
> [snip...]
> >  I have a growing personal digital library of valuable books as PDF
> > files.
> [snip...]
>
> is there any platform where scholars could share their pdf-files? I have
> an ever growing library of valuable indological source books in pdf-format
> too. if there was a platform to share such resources, the effort of
> scanning etc. would be reduced and everyone could contribute his or her
> pdfs. and everybody else could share the fruit of the individual effort.
> i suppose that it is evident to everyone that computer readable (or rather
> viewable) versions of works which are otherwise available only in printed
> form are desirable as you can have your library (or at least important
> portions of it) with you on the laptop etc., everywhere you go.
>
> but then the question arises: what about copyright laws?
> we all know the gretil archive; many of the texts listed there have also
> been extracted from printed editions subject to copyrigth laws. i suppose
> that pdf-files prepared from printed books make a big difference in legal
> terms, don't they?
>
> any chance to overcome this problem, anybody concerned with the question
> of a (centralized) indological digital library?
>
>
> cheers
>
> jn
>
> ________________________________________
> Jürgen Neuß, M.A.
>
> Freie Universität Berlin
> Institut für die Sprachen und Kulturen Südasiens
> Königin-Luise-Str. 34 a
> D-14195 Berlin
> Germany
>