3 ms·

From Italy, https://www.gutenberg.org/ https://www.gutenberg.org/ gives a 404 error and https://gutenberg.org/ https://gutenberg.org/ opens a very official-look

From Italy, https://www.gutenberg.org/ https://www.gutenberg.org/ gives a 404 error and https://gutenberg.org/ https://gutenberg.org/ opens a very official-looking page stating "police notice. This site is under judicial seizure" and references a sentence number: "criminal proceedings 52127/20 R.N.R.I. tribunal of Rome" Any idea what's happening? I thought PG published public domain books...

cosmos0072 5mo ago
Found: it's a sentence from 2020, and PG decided not to appeal (!?) Full story (in Italian) at https://www.wired.it/internet/web/2020/06/30/progetto-gutenberg-sequestro/ https://www.wired.it/internet/web/2020/06/30/progetto-gutenb...
- charonn0 5mo ago
  Seems like a case for HTTP 451 (Unavailable for Legal Reasons) rather than 404.
  - amelius 5mo ago
    HTTP 666 (We're evil) seems more fitting here.
- johndough 5mo ago
  It looks like the issue was that, in Italy, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author or the first translator of a work.
  - JSeiko 5mo ago
    PG works based on US copyright law. And as I understand it that's also 70 years after author/translator death. My gut feeling is that if anyone tried hard enough this ban could probably get lifted
    - robin_reala 5mo ago
      That’s only the case for works published after the mid-70s. For works published before (which is all current PD books in the US), it’s 95 years after the date of publication, with a few exceptions where people failed to file renewal notices.
JSeiko 5mo ago
I asked Claude to research the background story: "In May 2020, the Court of Rome ordered Italian ISPs to seize/block a list of domains as part of a criminal case (the 52127/20 R.N.R. you're seeing) targeting sites and Telegram channels distributing pirated newspapers and magazines. 28 domains were on the list, and Project Gutenberg got thrown in alongside the actual pirate sites." apparently this situation hasn't been resolved yet
- GJim 5mo ago
  > I asked Claude Please don't do this. Quote an authoritative source, not some AI bot known for ~~hallucinating~~ bullshitting.
dgellow 5mo ago
It was also blocked in Germany for a while due to a court order https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html
- tangledhelix 5mo ago
  The Alfred Döblin books are still blocked in Germany (for a couple more years).
gluejar 5mo ago
A silly legal tribunal confused PG with pirate sites. We sent the tribunal a letter pointing out their error but it was ignored. The block was served on local dns providers so many Italian users evade the block by using DNS from Google or Cloudflare.

cosmos0072 5mo ago

Found: it's a sentence from 2020, and PG decided not to appeal (!?) Full story (in Italian) at https://www.wired.it/internet/web/2020/06/30/progetto-gutenberg-sequestro/ https://www.wired.it/internet/web/2020/06/30/progetto-gutenb...

charonn0 5mo ago
Seems like a case for HTTP 451 (Unavailable for Legal Reasons) rather than 404.
- amelius 5mo ago
  HTTP 666 (We're evil) seems more fitting here.
johndough 5mo ago
It looks like the issue was that, in Italy, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author or the first translator of a work.
- JSeiko 5mo ago
  PG works based on US copyright law. And as I understand it that's also 70 years after author/translator death. My gut feeling is that if anyone tried hard enough this ban could probably get lifted
  - robin_reala 5mo ago
    That’s only the case for works published after the mid-70s. For works published before (which is all current PD books in the US), it’s 95 years after the date of publication, with a few exceptions where people failed to file renewal notices.

JSeiko 5mo ago

I asked Claude to research the background story: "In May 2020, the Court of Rome ordered Italian ISPs to seize/block a list of domains as part of a criminal case (the 52127/20 R.N.R. you're seeing) targeting sites and Telegram channels distributing pirated newspapers and magazines. 28 domains were on the list, and Project Gutenberg got thrown in alongside the actual pirate sites." apparently this situation hasn't been resolved yet

GJim 5mo ago
> I asked Claude Please don't do this. Quote an authoritative source, not some AI bot known for ~~hallucinating~~ bullshitting.

dgellow 5mo ago

It was also blocked in Germany for a while due to a court order https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html

tangledhelix 5mo ago
The Alfred Döblin books are still blocked in Germany (for a couple more years).

gluejar 5mo ago

A silly legal tribunal confused PG with pirate sites. We sent the tribunal a letter pointing out their error but it was ignored. The block was served on local dns providers so many Italian users evade the block by using DNS from Google or Cloudflare.