He added in August 1999: "In addition to 'web-extending' books, we are now web-extending our multimedia (CD-ROM) products -- to update and enrich them." He added In October 2000: "Our company -- EDVantage Software -- has become an internet company instead of a multimedia (CD-ROM) company. We deliver educational material online to students and teachers." 1998 > A MORE RESTRICTIVE COPYRIGHT LAW [Summary] A major blow for digital libraries was the amendment to the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act signed on 27 October 1998, each legislation being been more restrictive than the previous one. As explained in July 1999 by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg: "Nothing will expire for another 20 years. We used to have to wait 75 years. Now it is 95 years. And it was 28 years (+ a possible 28-year extension, only on request) before that, and 14 years (+ a possible 14-year extension) before that. So, as you can see, this is a serious degrading of the public domain, as a matter of continuing policy." The copyright went from an average of 30 years in 1909 to an average of 95 years in 1998, with an extension of 65 years. Only a book published before 1923 could now be considered for sure as belonging to the public domain in the U.S. The copyright legislation became more restrictive too in the European Union. *** A major blow for digital libraries was the amendment to the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act signed on 27 October 1998, followed by a more restrictive legislation too in the European Union. Each legislation was more restrictive than the previous one. As explained in July 1999 by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg: "Nothing will expire for another 20 years. We used to have to wait 75 years. Now it is 95 years. And it was 28 years (+ a possible 28-year extension, only on request) before that, and 14 years (+ a possible 14- year extension) before that. So, as you can see, this is a serious degrading of the public domain, as a matter of continuing policy. (…) No one has said more against copyright extensions than I have, but Hollywood and the big publishers have seen to it that our Congress won't even mention it in public. The kind of copyright debate going on is totally impractical. It is run by and for the 'Landed Gentry of the Information Age.' 'Information Age'? For whom?"