The Classic--now online 

The 1911 Edition Encyclopedia Britannica

The 1911 encyclopedia was unfettered by pressure groups, had journalistic integrity and was open to a wide variety of philosophies. The 11th Edition is frank and honest in its articles on religious history, especially medieval church history. Women's suffrage was given a soapbox, as were many other controversial subjects of the day. Even W.E.B. DuBois, one of the earliest and most radical of civil rights leaders, was encouraged to put in his two cents worth.

But why do they have to burn them? 

Book Lovers Pay Their Final Respects by Dana Hedgepeth

Tamara Woolf, 44, couldn't bear to think of a Dostoevski novel burning, so yesterday she took one of her students and went to the Victor Kamkin Inc. bookstore in Rockville to buy a shopping cart full of history, art and Russian classics -- almost all in Russian.

The Kamkin inventory -- estimated to be as many as 2 million books -- had been slated to be sent to the Montgomery County incinerator tomorrow because the owner is behind on the rent and faces eviction.

"The idea of burning books brings to me a memory of the Nazis burning books," said Woolf, a resident of Rockville who teaches Russian at St. Albans School for Boys. "It's unimaginable to me that this would happen here. I'm stunned and shocked."

There was word late yesterday of a possible reprieve for the vast collection of books, which includes limited editions and rare volumes. [read more]

Censorship 

A Brief and Indiosyncratic History of Censorship by Robert Atkins

Should homo sapiens be renamed homo censoris? We're certainly the only species capable of censorship. Where does this troublesome urge come from? Perhaps it's merely an extension of that age-old, apparently hormonal instinct to dominate and control. Whatever its origins, censorship--the prohibition of speech or expression divorced from action--transcends cultural boundaries and predates recorded history. The Old Testament informs us that the Hebrews burned the prophecy of Jeremiah because it was too downbeat. Confucius's writings were incinerated around 250 BC after a change of dynasty made them politically incorrect. The Roman historian Tacitus mistakenly believed that Augustus was the first emperor to destroy books and punish speech,but the Romans had actually taken their cues from the Greeks. To be fair, the Romans should be credited with refining the practice of censorship, as well as with coining the term itself. Beginning in the fifth century BC, they commissioned "censors" whose primary purpose was to conduct the "census," in order to rationalize the collection of taxes. As night follows day, the imposition of moral standards followed the imposition of standards for citizenship. Around the time of Christ, Augustus codified these moral standards into law. But as Tacitus wisely noted about "immoral" books: "So long as the possession of these writings was attended by danger, they were eagerly sought and read: when there was no longer any difficulty in securing them, they fell into oblivion."

So what else is new? That's the thing about censorship--it seems to spring from misguided, but ever-so-human nature. What follows is a sometimes tragic, sometimes inadvertently amusing chronicle of mostly Western milestones in censorship since the fall of the Roman Empire. Rest assured that each of these objects--or agents--of censorship stands for hundreds like it. [read more]

The is more interesting information on censorship at The File Room Censorship Archive

Copyright Term Extension 

The Mouse That Ate the Public Domain: Disney, The Copyright Term Extension Act, And eldred V. Ashcroft by Chris Sprigman

Unless you earn your living as an intellectual property lawyer, you probably don't know that the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case that will test the limits of Congress's power to extend the term of copyrights. But while copyright may not seem inherently compelling to non-specialists, the issues at stake in Eldred are vitally important to anyone who watches movies, listens to music, or reads books.

If that includes you, read on. [read more]