EBooks/eLibraries just seemed to be the most natural thing for the Internet when I first got on...you could type in a book anywhere on the Net and anyone, any time, anywhere, and the rest of history could get it out, free of charge.

It took so little time, money and effort on my part, well, ALL my time, money and effort, but compared to what the result is, the cost-benefit ratio is just amazing!

The initial response was about six per cent of all the people I knew on the Net, which was larger than I expected. Obviously, that first file has now been downloaded, copied, re-edited, etc, by millions, if not a billion readers.

How important is copyright today? Can we foresee a world in which books are available without copyright?
The major purpose of copyright today is to keep people from getting any information without paying for it. This is even more true for me, here in the US, than in India
where copyright terms haven't been extended so much.

Here, I now have a copyright system: The Supreme Court has ruled that copyright will be extendable as many times, for as many years. That means Mickey Mouse and Winnie The Pooh, etc will never go into the public domain. Hundred years ago, about half of all copyrights had expired; 100 years from now, not even one per cent of copyright will have expired.

Since the publishers control copyright terms through lobbies and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), there is no chance for your, "world in which books are available without copyright" unless there are major, major changes.