How about web-extended books? "If a book can be web-extended (living partly in cyberspace), then an author can easily update and correct it, whereas otherwise the author would have to wait a long time for the next edition, if indeed a next edition ever came out. (…) I do not know if I will publish books on the web — as opposed to publishing paper books. Probably that will happen when books become multimedia. (I currently am helping develop multimedia learning materials, and it is a form of teaching that I like a lot — blending text, movies, audio, graphics, and — when possible — interactivity)."
He added in August 1999: "In addition to 'web-extending' books, we are now web-extending our multimedia (CD-ROM) products — to update and enrich them."
He added In October 2000: "Our company — EDVantage Software — has become an internet company instead of a multimedia (CD-ROM) company. We deliver educational material online to students and teachers."
1998 > A MORE RESTRICTIVE COPYRIGHT LAW
[Summary] A major blow for digital libraries was the amendment to the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act signed on 27 October 1998, each legislation being been more restrictive than the previous one. As explained in July 1999 by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg: "Nothing will expire for another 20 years. We used to have to wait 75 years. Now it is 95 years. And it was 28 years (+ a possible 28-year extension, only on request) before that, and 14 years (+ a possible 14-year extension) before that. So, as you can see, this is a serious degrading of the public domain, as a matter of continuing policy." The copyright went from an average of 30 years in 1909 to an average of 95 years in 1998, with an extension of 65 years. Only a book published before 1923 could now be considered for sure as belonging to the public domain in the U.S. The copyright legislation became more restrictive too in the European Union.
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A major blow for digital libraries was the amendment to the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act signed on 27 October 1998, followed by a more restrictive legislation too in the European Union.
Each legislation was more restrictive than the previous one. As explained in July 1999 by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg: "Nothing will expire for another 20 years. We used to have to wait 75 years. Now it is 95 years. And it was 28 years (+ a possible 28-year extension, only on request) before that, and 14 years (+ a possible 14- year extension) before that. So, as you can see, this is a serious degrading of the public domain, as a matter of continuing policy. (…) No one has said more against copyright extensions than I have, but Hollywood and the big publishers have seen to it that our Congress won't even mention it in public. The kind of copyright debate going on is totally impractical. It is run by and for the 'Landed Gentry of the Information Age.' 'Information Age'? For whom?"
John Mark Ockerbloom, founder of The Online Books Page, wrote in August 1999: "I think it is important for people on the web to understand that copyright is a social contract that is designed for the public good — where the public includes both authors and readers. This means that authors should have the right to exclusive use of their creative works for limited times, as is expressed in current copyright law. But it also means that their readers have the right to copy and reuse the work at will once copyright expires. In the U.S. now, there are various efforts to take rights away from readers, by restricting fair use, lengthening copyright terms (even with some proposals to make them perpetual) and extending intellectual property to cover facts separate from creative works (such as found in the 'database copyright' proposals).“
The shrinking of public domain also affected the European Union, where copyright laws went from "author's life + 50 years" to "author's life + 70 years", following pressure from content owners who successfully lobbied for "harmonization" of national copyright laws as a response to "globalization of the market".