The worldgate was, of course, the biggest news of the century!  Maybe even of the millennium (though the History-Monks were still having a furious debate over whether electricity was still bigger).  It wasn't how they were thinking it was most likely to find aliens, but it was not that far from how they had been traditionally hoping to.

And even though nobody could go through to the other world, and most things couldn't be sent through either, they could still write!

Within a couple days, after thousands of requests and attempts to do things with the worldgate, the Ecumenical Order of Physics-Monks had thrown up its hands, declared it wouldn't try to coordinate things anymore, and spun up a brand-new Ecumenical Board of Worldgates to at least keep track of everything that was being sent or received.  The History-Monks were happy to supply personnel, since it was probably going to be closer to their area than the Physics-Monks now.  Several hundred nations signed on within the first week, with more following.

(Several dozen nations also urged the Board to keep secret any information that would threaten the whole world.  Examples included things like text that would enchant the reader (which they didn't think was possible but they couldn't be sure with another world involved), or designs to produce unmoderated chain atomic transmutation (which the Physics-Monks had said was impossibly expensive so far, but might be possible more cheaply).  But that hasn't actually come up yet, and getting agreement to officially modify the Board's charter will take time.)

It's the President of the Ecumenical Board of Worldgates who first reads and responds to the Head Archivist's letter:

Greetings!  I speak for myself and for most of the people of Ev when I say: I am overjoyed to be able to contact you.

I am Areli Eddin, President of the Ecumenical Board of Worldgates; and also a Preceptor of the Ecumenical Order of History-Monks, who among other things keep archives of Ev's recorded works.

We would be happy to exchange works, though as you guess we also have our conditions and standards.  Most prominently, the History-Monks also seal many records of recent events for a period of time, or until the death of the people involved.  Otherwise, we would hardly be allowed access to record so many events, and our histories would be much poorer.  Our Order has a reputation more than a millennium old, and before sharing any material covered by such vows, we would at least demand similar vows from you.  We would be happy to share samples of such vows for your review.

Speaking more broadly, Ev also has a wide variety of works under complicated laws.  These laws are frequently not observed by many nations; however, as President of the Board of Worldgates, I would not wish to encourage you to ignore them.  In general, the laws frequently demand payment before reading, impose conditions on making derivative works, demand a portion of any payment you might get for copying or transmitting the work, or sometimes demand that only certain categories of person (based on age, religion, nationality, etc.) be allowed to read it.  I expect that most nations in Ev will be willing to observe your laws at least to whatever degree they observe similar laws already, but I cannot myself make promises.

However, there are also many works not covered by such laws - some produced before the laws went into effect; others because they were produced by people not choosing to be covered by such laws.  Most notably, the Ecumenical Orders of History-Monks and Physics-Monks by ancient tradition decline any such coverage, so their material can profit as much of the world as possible.

Feel free to address letters to me; I will forward them (as requested) to all member nations of the Ecumenical Board of Worldgates.

Sincerely yours, and with similar hopes for a long and fruitful exchange,

Areli Eddin, President

To Areli Eddin,

How excellent! It sounds as though our[in] institutions have much in common. Perhaps a bit of background on the Archive is in order: the Archive was first established 4,1054 [Translator's note: 5,434 in base 10] years ago, with the mission of preserving written works for the people of the future, without restriction. Specifically, this means that we[ex] will accept written works (and, in recent decades, audio and video recordings) under any set of restrictions, so long as someone in the future will be able to read them.

To that end, those of us[ex] who dedicate our[ex] lives to the project as Archivists swear "to do our[ex] best to preserve the works entrusted to our[ex] care; to access works only as permitted by their authors and designates, or as necessary for their preservation; to share them only as permitted; to keep accurate records of the works and the conditions attached to them; and to make the works entrusted to our[ex] care available to permitted recipients without bias or favor".

(There are some additional policies around how the term 'authors and designates' applies to different circumstances; that is usually the area that needs most clarification, when people ask about our[ex] oaths)

So, that is to say: I am quite certain that we[ex] will be willing to swear to the necessary vows. If you would send over the specific wordings, we[ex] will review them to be sure. And you may likewise investigate our[ex] long history of compliance and trustworthiness, to assure yourselves that we[ex] will take them seriously.

It sounds as though your vows are perhaps more specific than ours[ex], if you have multiple for different purposes? The traditional Archivist's vow was established during a historical period of turmoil and rapid expansion, which is why it is so broad — the founders wished to ensure that as broad a swath of the population would feel safe in sending works to us[ex] as possible. In practice, we[ex] have very rarely encountered people unwilling to entrust their works to an Archivist, and have never encountered a compelling case for expanding the oath — but, as you are alien to us[ex], it may very well be the case that you have the first such case.

Given your institution's long history (I have spoken to the translators and looked through those introductory cultural materials you have shared, at it seems to be confirmed), if you were willing to swear the Archivist's oath as well, we[ex] would be willing to consider the History-Monks as a branch of the Archive for the purposes of our agreements and begin the process of sharing our whole corpus. If, on the other hand, you are (sensibly!) not willing to swear such a broad and open-ended vow, I can instead have a list of more specific terms for our different collections assembled.

On the broader topic of how cities [Translator's note: 'nations' may be more appropriate in context.] and other outside organizations do or do not adhere to requirements for dealing with different works: I, of course, cannot speak for anyone other than the Archive. That said, there are a few general points to address.

For one thing, the Archive cannot release copies of works subject to restrictions to anyone or any organization who will violate those restrictions. So if there are cities [nations] on your world that do not respect such, then we[ex] will not be able to send them some documents. I would greatly appreciate a list of what nations do or do not observe laws governing the dissemination of various works. If you cannot provide such a list, a complete list of cities [nations] would still be helpful as the basis of our[ex] own research.

For another there are several jurisdictions on our[ex] world that only extend protection under the law to works that have been registered with the Archive. Historically, the Archive has avoided taking a position on whether this is a sensible system or not — but that doesn't stop those cities that think it is a good idea from writing it into their laws. So if any works from your world are to be protected by our[ex] laws, then we[in] must either: ensure that your collection is (legally) considered part of the Archive, ensure that any works transmitted through the portal are registered in the Archive prior to distribution, or ensure that any such works are not transmitted to members of the Smaller Continent Standardized Copyright Agreement Area and various other polities (see attached list).

I would like to emphasize, of course, that the majority of our[ex] collection is not subject to any requirements; we[ex] encourage modern authors to give us[ex] requirements that expire upon their death or sometime thereafter specifically to avoid accumulating ever-increasing obligations. It is, as always the case, 0.1 of the collection that demand 0.5 of the effort. [Translator's note: "10% of the collection that demands 90% of the effort" might be a more colloquial translation.]

I have instructed our[ex] Archivists to begin sending through the index of un-encumbered works. Please let us[ex] know what subset of those you would like copies of. Our[ex] hope is, of course, that you will take them all and store them independently, but I recognize that the bandwidth of the portal is somewhat limited, and so we[in] must prioritize.

Likewise, I would like to request a copy of all of your un-encumbered works, starting with your Histories and going from there.

Looking forward to your response,

Zoshteli, Head Archivist

To the Head Archivst Zoshteli,

I am happy to see that our institutions do have much in common!  It supports my theory that our institutions are a natural outgrowth of the human spirit, which is especially reassuring now that we know for a fact that humanity is spread across multiple worlds.

Your vow is quite general, in that it brings in by reference whatever permissions "their authors and designates" might choose to give.  We vow to specific criteria.  There are some vows - such as vows to share with only people espousing a particular religion or philosophy, or only those who themselves make a vow - which we would not give.

I'm sorry to say there might be many works where we History-Monks could not honor the vows your order has given.  At the very least, we could not swear such an oath in generality.  But, at the least, we would be glad to take the proverbial nine-tenths of the collection without such restrictions!

But, here I speak only for the History-Monks.  As President of the Board of Worldgates, I've forwarded your letter to the national ambassadors on my Board, and many of them are sure their nations will be glad to honor many such pledges.

A complete list of every nation's copyright laws will take some time to translate, and perhaps be too voluminous for the portal (which, Physics-Lector Mulgrove is already reminding me, is already wanted for more calibration data) - perhaps a digest would be more helpful to start with?  I'll send one shortly if so.

Regarding priorities, a majority of the Board has requested that you prioritize natural science and life science.  [Translator's note:  Between them, these include all the sciences that don't involve human behavior.]  Though, a minority - including me - would be interested in political history and philosophy.

I'm sending shortly an overview of early post-Shift history, and then an overview of more modern history.  Please elaborate on where you want us to focus the next books!

[Translator's note:  The "Shift" appears to be a major change in Evite social movements and structure across perhaps fifty to a hundred years.  The Order of History-Monks was founded as part of that change.]

Looking forward to more collaboration,
Areli Eddin, President

To the Head Archivst Zoshteli, and the World of þereminia,

Greetings!

We, the King and Council of New Talfrem, write you directly in the hope that we might be more able to reach a deal than the entire Ecumenical Board working together.  Not all the nations involved have even approved the recent Treaty on Extradition, and their President is a History-Monk whose order takes decades to change their main practices; it would surprise us if they could quickly make major changes.

We won't pretend to be a branch of an Archive - we as nearly everyone use the History-Monks for that - but we hope there are many restricted works that can be sent to participants outside the Archive willing to vow to keep those restrictions?  We are a signatory to multiple treaties involving paying authors from the national treasury according to the distribution of their work.

Yours truly,
His Eminence Mariay IV Campestian, King
in council

Zoshteli responds to President Areli Eddin with a relatively short letter promising that he is putting together a group of science textbooks to send through, and asking some questions about how they annotate the people who fact-checked a particular work. He also expresses thanks for the interesting histories. For the next set of books, he requests the most up-to-date, unencumbered science textbooks for each of their general areas of research, and a set of pre-Shift histories, to complete their historical timeline of Ev. Then, he writes a somewhat longer letter:

To His Eminence Mariay IV Campestian,

As you might imagine, the answer to your question is "it depends". Due to the Archive's unique historical position on our[ex] world, there are some works that were left to us[ex] specifically, and cannot be shared outside the organization. This was, unfortunately, a somewhat common requirement from about 3,0000 to 3,0300 [Translator's note: 3,888 to 3,996 in base 10; "3,800 to 4,000" might be more colloquial, since the author is writing imprecisely]. Contact between Smaller Continent and Larger Continent ended up showing the shortsightedness of that approach, and most modern works can, indeed, be shared with people and organizations who respect their access requirements.

Leaving out those works which we[ex] have already determined can be shared with the History-Monks, and those works that cannot be shared outside the Archive, the remaining fall into several categories:

- Modern works which require payment to distribute until some time. Given your adherence to the treaties of your world, I expect these can be shared without issue. If you are willing to sign onto the Smaller Continent Standardized Copyright Agreement or the Global Copyright Minimum Standards Agreement, (see attached texts), I can share them with you immediately. Otherwise, if you send us[ex] the agreements to which you are a signatory, we[ex] can begin the process of determining which agreements are compatible.

- Modern works which are only available if correct metadata is associated with the work. There are a number of authors who make their work available to us[ex] under the condition that their authorship (and other incidental metadata, such as publication date and relationships to other stories) remains associated with all copies of the work. If your treaties also cover this case, or if you are willing to enter into an agreement to prosecute people found to have breached such agreements to a minimum standard, I can share these also.

- Historical works which are only accessible to people who swear by various historical causes. For several centuries, it was fashionable to make works available only to people on one side or another of a particular conflict. Most of these conflicts have vanished into the mists of history, but not our[ex] obligations. I have attached a full list, but representative examples are things like "only those who uphold the right of Mershesar to claim the continuing legacy of her father's crown" or "only those who acknowledge that the Second Bank of Twin River City did, for a period of some years, engage in discriminatory trade practices". In the attached list, I have annotated them by whether (for those matters of fact and not opinion) our best historical estimates believe the claim is correct or not. Generally, we[ex] require people wishing to view these works to provide the Archive with a sworn affidavit that they meet the relevant criteria. If you can require the same (and, ideally, provide copies of the relevant affidavits to us[ex]), then these works could potentially be made available. We[ex] will need to audit your setup to ensure it meets our[ex] requirements.

- Historical works which are only accessible to people of a particular religion. These are treated similarly to those accessible only to people who swear by various historical causes, with the exception that anyone who converts for the purpose of accessing a text must practice the rites of the associated religion. (Also: not all religions can be converted to; see later section on families) The duration of such a practice has been underspecified, in the past, but in the present day the Archive usually requires at least a year and a day of observance in addition to a sworn affidavit, as a demonstration that the scholar is sincere.

- Historical works only accessible to descendants of a particular person. The Archive has estimated that the most recent common ancestor of all living þereminians probably lived approximately 1000,0000 years ago [Translator's note: About 300,000 years ago]; if you can arrange for someone on your side of the portal to be legally adopted by someone on our side, we can hope to make all these works available without restriction in another 1000,0000 years or so. In the mean time, Prince Kalhormet the Strong declared that his father's restrictions were stupid, and arranged so that absolutely anyone can be considered his child by adoption just by completing a particular form and submitting it to the government of Backs-to-the-Mountain City. This grants someone the title of Princess, Prince, or Princap, and technically requires them to muster to the defense of Backs-to-the-Mountain City in the event of a seige, but does allow access to about half the works in this category. (His father was very prolific)

- Historical works only accessible to those who complete a trial. Some scholars only wanted their works read by those who they considered intellectually worthy, and so required readers to pass a test or solve a riddle. The Archive does not provide answers to these, but some people have compiled a compendium of answers, which we[ex] have been obliged to store and make available upon request. The same affidavit system as above could be used here.

- Various sundries. There are a good number of works only available at certain times, to people matching more specific criteria, and so on. I have some Archivists working through determining the correct correspondence between our[in] calendars for these, and so on.

Please do let me know which of these you feel capable of promising to handle correctly; we[ex] are most eager to see our[ex] collection preserved across two worlds.

In the hope of a fruitful partnership,

Zoshteli, Head Archivist

Attached to this letter are copies of two treaties and a list of historical causes. One treaty is a (near) superset of the other. The more minimal treaty imposes a copyright duration of 30 (eighteen) years, during which an author may add whatever restrictions to the copying of a work they wish — excepting that works may always be used in government trials, and copied by Archivists. The other applies only to works registered with the Archive, and has the same term of 30 years for absolute control, and then a further term of 30 years during which the author may only specify a price-per-copy, and must allow the work to be made available to anyone who pays the price.

Both treaties apply only to works which are published, which specifically does not mean submitted to the Archive. It is still perfectly possible to submit your work to the Archive under more restrictive or time-unlimited terms, but if the work is published in an area that is a signatory to one of the treaties, then the author must allow the Archive to release the work without restriction at the end of the term. There are maximum and minimum monetary penalties given in the treaties, but they are pegged to a basket of multiple currencies, and there's an addendum showing how the penalties have been updated over time to account for economic changes.