Lib.ru, also known as Maksim Moshkow's Library (, started to operate in November 1994) is the oldest electronic library in the Russian Internet segment. Founded and supported by

Maksim Moshkow Maksim Eugenievich Moshkow (; born 13 October 1966) is a public figure of the Russian Internet segment, the Runet, most famous for his project of "Oldest e-library in Runet- Russian Internet", the Lib.ru aka ''Moshkow's Library''. Biography Mo ...

, it receives contributions mainly from users who send texts they scanned and processed ( OCR,

proofreading Proofreading is a phase in the process of publishing where galley proofs are compared against the original manuscripts or graphic artworks, to identify transcription errors in the typesetting process. In the past, proofreaders would place corr ...

). This method of acquisition provides the library a broad and efficient augmentability, though sometimes it adversely affects the quality (errors, omissions). The structure of the library includes a section where one can publish his own literary texts ("Samizdat" journal, named after the

samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...

of the Soviet era), a project for music publishing ("Music hosting"), a travel notes project ("Foreign countries") and some other sections. ''Maksim Moshkow's Library'' received several Ru-net Awards, including the National Intel Internet Award (2003) and Runet Prize. The headline on the site Lib.ru says "With support from the Federal Press and Mass Communications Agency". According to Moshkow, his project received $35,000 from that organization in September 2005, which indicates some level of government support for the online publishing of in-copyright works. Maksim Moshkow's project could be compared to some

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

projects and is sometimes referred to as Russia's

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

KM Online vs. Maksim Moshkow's Library

On 1 April 2004, the "KM Online" media company, which is known for forming its own library by copying texts from the other electronic libraries, issued a lawsuit against Maksim Moshkow's Library in the name of Eduard Gevorkian, Marina Alekseyeva (pen-name " Alexandra Marinina"), Vasili Golovachov and Elena Katasonova. It was later discovered that only Gevorkian had had real claims against Moshkow. Moshkow's lawyer was Andrey Mironov from the Artemy Lebedev Studio, while KM's interests were presented by the so-called "National Society for Digital Technologies (NOCIT)". This case became a precedent in the Russian legal practice which illustrated pressure on an electronic library caused by a

copyright violation Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, ...

lawsuit. On 30 March 2005, Moscow's Ostankino city district court imposed a penalty on Maksim Moshkow to pay Eduard Gevorkian a total of 3000 Russian rubles (around US$120) as compensation for moral damage. The ruling did not mention any compensation for copyright violation. On 30 May 2006, another court order ruled that Moshkow had no right to publish online the works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, Harrison and Zinoviev and ordered him to pay 10,000 rubles in each case. Moshkow's lawyer said he would appeal the decision.

KM Online vs. Maksim Moshkow's Library

See also

References

External links