From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Suggestions Wanted: Public Domain Erotica/Censored Material for Transcribing
Date: 8 Oct 92 18:06:30 GMT
Reply-To: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Followup-To: alt.conspiracy
Organization: COMANDOS Project, Glesga Yoonie

noring@netcom.com (Jon Noring) wrote in alt.censorship:
> Project Gutenberg is attempting to transcribe many classic books (which are
> now in the Public Domain because their copyrights have expired) into
> electronic text files. [...]
> After talking to the Project leaders, I realized that there are many very
> good and worthwhile books that they may not transcribe (at least for a few
> years) because they are sensitive in some manner. [...]
> I'd like to receive net.wisdom feedback and ideas as to what older, public
> domain books/texts (dealing with sensitive subjects such as erotica or texts
> that have been repeatedly censored for other reasons), should be transcribed
> and made available to the Internet (and effectively the world).  Also, if
> you'd like to volunteer to help transcribe these texts (either manually or
> using a scanner with character recognition software), then let me know and
> maybe we can get something going.  Such a project would be independent of
> Project Gutenberg, of course.  It would definitely be a labor of love. [...]

[ lots of sensible stuff about copyright problems deleted ]

Crossposted to alt.conspiracy because there are a few texts relevant to that
that are none too easy to come by, either... what would we nominate?

- Masonic handbooks?  These are never meant to leave the order: when a Mason
  dies, a brother comes round to collect his manuals.  But there must be
  stray copies around somewhere.  Probably bum-numbingly dull.

- Military training manuals?  Civilians are at least strongly discouraged
  from owning some of these in the UK (I'm not sure of the exact legal
  position).

- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the satirical text it was ripped
  off from?

- Maps from countries like Turkey and Portugal that make their topography a
  state secret?

- The KGB's collection of espionage data on the West, as collected before
  the Soviet Union joined the world copyright system? (if they really have
  opened their archives, this ought to be in there somewhere, shouldn't it?)

More prosaically, what the conspiracist really needs is stuff like
corporate and political party accounts, lists of company directors,
editorial boards of political magazines, dates of meetings, addresses of
cover organizations... a mountain of stuff it would be one hell of a grunt
to organize.  I have thought it might be rather nice to have a Prolog
database of who was who in the extreme right and secret state, so we could
answer questions like "just what links connect Bo Gritz to the Moonies?"
with the speed of a sportscaster quoting trivia.  It would take several
person-years of work to compile.

-- 
--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, Scotland   TEL: 041 339 8855 x6854 (work)
INTERNET: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk or via nsfnet-relay.ac.uk    FAX: 041 330 4913
BANG!net: via mcsun and uknet     BITNET: via UKACRL    UUCP: jack@glasgow.uucp
Newsgroups: alt.censorship,alt.politics.elections,uiuc.civil-liberty,alt.sex,rec