On Walden

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. - Henry David Thoreau, Walden

On July 8th, Eric Eldred and the Internet Bookmobile went to Walden Pond to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Thoreau's Walden (Free Walden). The reception wasn't at all what one might expect:

After an hour of having readers print and take away free copies of "Walden," I was asked by the Walden Pond Reservation police to pack up and leave and threatened with arrest. I left.

The park supervisor (Denise Morrissey, 978-369-3254) told me I could not pass out free literature without a permit. And she would not give me a permit because, as she explained, the state park gets money from a concession by the Thoreau Society, which operates a store that sells "Walden"--and I was competing with them by giving away free copies.

I cannot say how sad and disappointed this makes me nor can I imagine the response Thoreau would have had to this expression of the general police power. This is beyond any irony.

On the other hand, the Internet Bookmobile contines to do great work. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think every school and library ought to have this publishing technology and access to thousands of great and important books freely available (Book Publishing in Every School and Library).

Of course, one of the wonderful things about the current moment is that we now have a growing number of really good books that are not out of copyright, but are copyleft. Not only can the Internet Bookmobile print Walden, but you can get a copy of such Creative Commons-licensed works as Lessig's Free Culture (though Eldred tells me it takes awhile to print the whole thing - he's given away chapters), Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and coming (very) soon, Dan Gillmor's We the Media.

via Boing Boing