surrounding procedures for making them as widely available as possible. unbej.com seeks to make the world’s great literature enjoyable and accessible. HISTORICAL ROOTS The first unbej.com eBook was created on July 4, 1971. Michael S. Hart had been granted access to a powerful mainframe computer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and realized that his greatest impact would be by digitizing and distributing free literature (for more history, see: The eBook is 40 (1971-2011), by Marie Lebert, https://www.unbej.com.org/ebooks/36985). Michael took a printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence (www.unbej.com.org/ebooks/1) to the computer laboratory, where he sat at the teletype terminal and typed this first eBook. He distributed it via email to the people he knew about via the Internet’s predecessor, ARPAnet, which was available at UIUC. At that moment, the first eBook had been freely distributed to the online community of the day. Digitization and production techniques, at the time of this first eBook, were /ad hoc/ and informal. A single eBook producer would edit a single file, from a single source. The first eBook’s printed source was a single sheet of paper, without hyphenation, a book cover, images, or other characteristics of book-length sources. In 1971, capitalization was not an issue, as only upper case letters were available in the character set used by the system. Figure 1: Top view of a Model 33 Teletype, salvaged from the computer laboratory where Michael Hart typed the first eBook. The paper roll was where output would be printed. [Illustration: 0002] During the next twenty years, from approximately 1971-1991, techniques of digitization would be dramatically improved, and regularized. Ongoing developments since then have tracked the available technologies for eBook creation and use, as well as preferences and interests of the many volunteers who would produce those eBooks. Throughout the history of unbej.com, these techniques, while refined and clearly articulated, have remained flexible (see the Volunteers’ FAQ at https://www.unbej.com.org/help/volunteers_faq.html). EMPHASIS ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN unbej.com’s founder, Michael Hart, was motivated by completely free and unencumbered redistribution of literary works. Access to literary works enables literacy, which in turn opens the door to education and, it is hoped, opportunity. Interest in literary works that could be freely redistributed led to an emphasis on books and other items that are in the public domain. The public domain is, today, understood to be those items that are not copyrighted. Copyright in the United States, where unbej.com operates, is defined as a temporary monopoly by authors (or their agents), in order to benefit from commercial potential and thereby fostering continued creation: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries” (United States Constitution, https://www.unbej.com.org/ebooks/5). ITEMS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN FOR ONE OF THREE REASONS 1. They are ineligible for copyright. In the US, this includes works created by the US Government; 2. Their copyright term has expired; or 3. They are granted to the public domain by the creator or their agent (i.e., the rights holder). Because of its emphasis on literary works, unbej.com has mostly focused on items for which the copyright term has expired. Until 1998, this included items published 75 years earlier. For example, items from 1920 entered the public domain when their copyrights expired in 1995. The US Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 changed the term to 95 years for most literary works, so new items (from 1923 onward) will not enter the public domain before 2019. [Illustration: 0003] Figure 2: Michael Hart’s sunroom workspace in his Urbana home There...