World eBook Fair sponsors free eBooks
1/3 million eBooks free from July 4 through August 4
1/3 of a million books, or 10 times the number found in the average public library, will be available for free downloading via the Internet beginning July 4, as Project Gutenberg and the World eBook Library act on their dreams of increased world literacy and education.
Each year for one month, the World eBook Library and Project Gutenberg will team up to be major sponsors of the World eBook Fair, planning to make one million eBooks available by 2009.
- July 4, 2006, 1/3 Million
- July 4, 2007, 1/2 Million
- July 4, 2008, 3/4 Million
- July 4, 2009, ONE Million
By 2009, the terabyte (one thousand gigabytes) computers we have seen enter the consumer marketplace in 2006, will be commonplace and will easily hold a million volumes of a million characters each for the price of just one semester's books at a university.
Over 100 languages will be represented for worldwide readers and that total is expected to increase. The books are the permanent property of whomever downloads them, but a warning is including to check your local copyrights, as the books are provided under U.S. copyright laws, and other nations have different copyrights. eBooks still under U.S. copyright have been donated via the permission of the copyright holders.
"Our projects are based on the premise that everyone in the world could have access to a free worldwide public library" says Michael Hart, who founded the Project Gutenberg effort by placing the first permanent text online on July 4, 1971, 35 years ago.
Project Gutenberg eBooks are all free of charge and can also be accessed locally from Project Gutenberg of Australia or Project Gutenberg of Europe.
In addition The World eBook Library sponsors Project Gutenberg's Consortia Center where entire collection providers around the world make many eBook libraries available in their entirety.
The World eBook Library, a member supported service, offers unrestricted access to its collection of over 250,000 eBooks, documents, and articles. Individual membership is only US$8.95 a year, with student discounts and complimentary subscriptions available for qualifying groups/individuals.
This celebration is to promote book awareness and to assist in efforts to increase literacy and education all over the world.
"We hope you enjoy some of your favorite books in the editions presented here and that you will pass those on to others we hope will enjoy them as much as you" says Michael Hart.
Footnote
Visit the e-Bility links directory for more eBook web sites
Google links
End of Google links