blog/data/2015-10-23-free-culture-english-published.txt

   1 Title: "Free Culture" by @lessig - The background story for Creative Commons - new edition available
   2 Tags: english, docbook, freeculture
   3 Date: 2015-10-23 12:10
   4
   5 <p><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html">Click
   6 here to buy the book</a>.</p>
   7
   8 <p>In 2004, as the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons
   9 movement</a> gained momentum, its creator Lawrence Lessig wrote the
  10 book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)">Free
  11 Culture</a> to explain the problems with increasing copyright
  12 regulation and suggest some solutions.  I read the book back then and
  13 was very moved by it.  Reading the book inspired me and changed the
  14 way I looked on copyright law, and I would love it if more people
  15 would read it too.</p>
  16
  17 <p>Because of this, I decided in the summer of 2012 to translate it to
  18 Norwegian Bokmål and publish it for those of my friends and family
  19 that prefer to read books in Norwegian.  I translated the book using
  20 docbook and a gettext PO file, and a byproduct of this process is a
  21 new edition of the English original.  I've been in touch with the
  22 author during by work, and he said it was fine with him if I also
  23 published an English version.  So I decided to do so.  Today, I made
  24 this edition
  25 <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html">available
  26 for sale on Lulu.com</a>, for those interested in a paper book.  This
  27 is the cover:
  28
  29 <p align="center"><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22402863.html"><img align="center" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-10-23-free-culture-english-published-cover.png"/></a></p>
  30
  31 <p>The Norwegian Bokmål version will be available for purchase in a
  32 few days.  I also plan to publish a French version in a few weeks or
  33 months, depending on the amount of people with knowledge of French to
  34 join the translation project.  So far there is only one active
  35 person, but the French book is almost completely translated but
  36 need some proof reading.</p>
  37
  38 <p>The book is also available in PDF, ePub and MOBI formats from
  39 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">my
  40 github project page</a>.  Note the ePub and MOBI versions have some
  41 formatting problems I believe is due to bugs in the docbook tool
  42 dbtoepub (Debian BTS issues
  43 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=795842">#795842</a>
  44 and
  45 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=796871">#796871</a>),
  46 but I have not taken the time to investigate.  I recommend the PDF and
  47 ePub version for now, as they seem to show up fine in the viewers I
  48 have available.</p>
  49
  50 <p>After the translation to Norwegian Bokmål was complete, I was able
  51 to secure some sponsoring from
  52 <a href="http://www.nuugfoundation.no/">the NUUG Foundation</a> to
  53 print the book.  This is the reason their logo is located on the back
  54 cover. I am very grateful for their contribution, and will use it to
  55 give a copy of the Norwegian edition to members of the Norwegian
  56 Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.</p>