-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 01:07:28 -0500 From: Eric Eldred <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: An All-Too-Brief History of the Internet? I am reading an interesting online book: A Brief History Of The Internet by Michael Hart and Max Fuller, (c) 1995 at (sorry for the URL--you'll have to unwrap it): http://www.netlibrary.com/api-bin/viewbook.dll?clientID=229156&EV=83057&infobase=1085022.nfo&softpage=All_Frame_Pg I wonder if Michael Hart and Max Fuller gave permission to NetLibrary to publish the book online at their site? I found it a bit ironic that the work includes this quote: "as long as the Information Superhighway is not taken over by the INFORMATION RICH and denied access to others other than for a fee they may not be able to pay, and shouldn't have to pay." when the New York Times today says (free subscription required): at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/12/biztech/articles/09book.html """" NetLibrary, [the publishers of the work cited above] for instance, has outposts in China, India and the Philippines where workers are converting books to electronic copies by typing the text into computers. Scanning the material directly into a computer posed too much potential for errors, according to the company. And so now the digital versions are copied in other parts of the world and then edited and refined by "book builders" at netLibrary's rapidly expanding headquarters in Boulder, Colo., where two shifts of employees work, from 7 a.m. to midnight. The company is converting about 50 books a day, but by December, the rate will rise to 200, said David Melancon, the company's marketing director. A start-up, with $105 million in new financing, netLibrary is aggressively pursuing major libraries to buy electronic collections so that library users will have 24-hour access to titles, with full-text searches. Since August, it has sold more than $1.5 million in electronic books to libraries like the one at the University of Texas, which bought 1,000 copies and acquired 5,000 more titles through consortium purchases. At this point, netLibrary's digital collection is dominated by reference and scholarly titles from academic presses, but the company intends to offer popular trade book titles that could also be offered to individual users by subscription. "Everybody realizes how quickly the business is going to change," Melancon said. "And once it starts, having first-mover advantage is huge. The key to grabbing the market is having the most content." """" And this from the article: >But because of security and piracy concerns, Simon & >Schuster is still reluctant to allow Microsoft access >to its titles for use with new digital display software >that will be available next year for reading, searching >and annotating books on a computer. ---- So now we know how they are going to get content to establish a market? There is nothing in the article about the 10,000 books in English available free online. I go to the Columbia U. web site that is supposed to contain online books about foreign policy, and I find I can't enter without paying for a password, and I can't even read the books there that are published by the federal government without copyright. What happened to the idea of a university as a beacon of light, of truth to the world, of a library where anyone is free to enter and read anything she wants? Isn't the web moving to online books as pay-per-view? Should we cooperate with this? What will happen to the fair use rights of users when all books will be available only by subscription, and covered by a license that gives the consumer no rights at all? Should the U.S. have changed copyright law to allow books printed in China or the Phillipines to be copyrightable--the sweatshops there will be typing in the books, instead of workers in the U.S.? The media giants have taken the next 20 years of the public domain--what is next? Maybe we should take our books off until Microsoft, Bertelsmann, and the other media giants who say they invented the etext decide it's not a market they can dominate, and quit appropriating our books to make money for themselves? [Moderator note: The Project Gutenberg version of "A Brief History of the Internet" does give a general license for other folks to distribute it under certain conditions. At ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/etext/gutenberg/etext95/bhoti01.txt you can see the license details in the "small print" section, and also read the rest of Michael Hart's book without needing frames. - JMO] -------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent via the Book People mailing list. Posting address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Admin. and Unsubscribe address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charter: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/bookpeople.html NOTE: ADDRESSES CHANGING SOON! Watch for details. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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