Once again there’s a dispute of copyright for a Gutenberg text. This time the titular text is being fought over by the estate of the author, expectedly represented by a league of lawyers.
Essentially the basis of their claim is that GWTW is still in copyright in the USA. It is. In Australia, however, it’s public domain and has been for quite a while. The problem, they say, is that Americans can still access the text which makes it illegal to serve it.
There’s a lot of discussion, about the USA imposing it’s own laws etc., so I won’t get into that. However Teleread is providing some good coverage, and in one article there I clarified the state of the Free Trade Agreement for them, that Australia will be signing soon:
Update, 1:45 a.m., October 28: Okay, here’s an exaplantion [sic] from Chris Gray, a Gutenberg volunteer Down Under: “In Australia us Gutenbergers have been reading up on the FTA, and from what we can ascertain the day it is signed is the day of life+70. Everything before the date of signing applies to the old rules. So the FTA is not the end of GWTW, yet still quite nasty for all the texts it will exclude.” Thanks, Chris. I’ll be delighted if Australians can still access the book even if the treaty goes into effect. Let’s hope it doesn’t!
I couldn’t help but use the term Gutenbergers; do forgive me Johann. 
