Eric Eldred
From Free net encyclopedia
Eric Eldred is an American literacy advocate and the proprietor of the unincorporated Eldritch Press, a website which republished the works of others which are in the public domain (that is, no longer subject to copyright). He was the lead plaintiff in Eldred v. Ashcroft, which challenged the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
Eric Eldred has been described as a former computer programmer and systems administrator, a Boston writer, and a Massachusetts-based technical analyst. He is a founder and director of Creative Commons. He is an independent scholar and avid reader of Nathaniel Hawthorne's works. He is now on disability and lived in an Internet Bookmobile traveling the U.S. visiting schools and libraries and special events to show readers how to print their own free books. The Bookmobile can be invited to visit a particular location at [1], although Eldred is no longer driving it.
In 2004, Eldred was denied a permit at Walden Pond State Reservation to print and give away free copies of Walden on the 150th anniversary of its publication. In 2005. Eldred returned with a permit, secured with the help of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, to print and give away copies of the book, and to demonstrate to readers how to self-publish and regain control of their own culture.