PGWeekly_April_16.txt
***The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, April 16, 2003***
*****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Nearly 32 Years*****
[The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly
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2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
A year ago last Thursday, April 10th, Project Gutenberg passed 5,000 eBooks!
Today we reached 7,666!!!
That's ~2,600 New eBooks In 12 Months!!!
That's 100 Over 1/4 of the 10,000 eBook Goal We Started On!
Only 2,334 to #10,000!!!
That means the part of the 10,000 we have already done
is over THREE TIMES AS BIG as what is left to do!!!
Over Our 31 3/4 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 200 Ebooks/Year--
And Last Year Averaged About That Same 200 eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
So far this year we are averaging ~265!!!
***
Please Note The Startup of Project Gutenberg--Canada [Below]
and Project Gutenberg of Mexico >> Gabriela Valencia <zane@axtel.net>
***
In the first 3 months of this year, we produced 923 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1995 to produce our first 923 eBooks!
That's 15 WEEKS as Compared to 24 Years!
55 New eBooks This Week
63 New eBooks Last Week
118 New eBooks This Month [Apr]
264 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
923 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
7,666 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
5,077 eBooks This Week Last Year
2,591 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months
216 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
***Week 40 Of The 32nd Year Of Project Gutenberg eBooks***
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***
FLASHBACK!!!
923 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 26 years for the first 923!
That's the 14 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to 26 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #923
Jun 1997 Tom Swift & his Submarine Boat, by Victor Appleton[04tomxxx.xxx] 949
Jun 1997 Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza/Elwes Part 3 [#3] [3spnexxx.xxx] 948
Jun 1997 The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson, by Robert Southey[hnlsnxxx.xxx] 947
Jun 1997 Lady Susan, by Jane Austen [Jane Austen #6] [lsusnxxx.xxx] 946
Jun 1997 Dust, by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius [dsthjxxx.xxx] 945
Jun 1997 The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin [#1] [vbglexxx.xxx] 944
Jun 1997 Misalliance, by George Bernard Shaw [Shaw #1] [msalixxx.xxx] 943
Jun 1997 Green Mansions, by W. H. Hudson [W. H. Hudson #1] [gmansxxx.xxx] 942
Jun 1997 Just Folks, by Edgar A. Guest [Edgar A. Guest #2] [jfolkxxx.xxx] 941
Jun 1997 Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper #1 [mohicxxx.xxx] 940
Jun 1997 Life of Thomas Telford, by Samuel Smiles [SS #5] [tlfrdxxx.xxx] 939
Jun 1997 Good Indian, by B. M. Bower [B. M. Bower #2] [gndinxxx.xxx] 938
Jun 1997 Poems: Patriotic, Religious, etc, by Father Ryan [fryanxxx.xxx] 937
Jun 1997 The Village Watch-Tower, by Kate Douglas Wiggin #3[vilwtxxx.xxx] 936
Jun 1997 Self Help; Conduct & Perseverance by Samuel Smiles[selfhxxx.xxx] 935
Jun 1997 Songs of a Savoyard by W. S. Gilbert [Gilbert #5] [svyrdxxx.xxx] 934
Jun 1997 More Bab Ballads, by W. S. Gilbert [Gilbert #4] [3babbxxx.xxx] 933
Jun 1997 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe [#1][usherxxx.xxx] 932
Jun 1997 The Bab Ballads, by W. S. Gilbert [Gilbert #3] [2babbxxx.xxx] 931
Jun 1997 The Cook's Decameron, by Mrs. W. G. Water [ckdecxxx.xxx] 930
Jun 1997 The Cyberpunk Fakebook, by St. Jude & R.U. Sirius [fakebxxx.xxx] 929C
May 1997 Alice In Wonderland, HTML Version of 30th Edition [alicexxh.xxx] 928
May 1997 The Lamplighter, by Charles Dickens [Dickens #29] [lmpltxxx.xxx] 927
May 1997 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, Gustavus Hindman Miller[drmntxxx.xxx] 926
May 1997 United States Presidents' Inaugural Speeches [uspisxxx.xxx] 925
May 1997 To Be Read At Dusk, by Charles Dickens[Dickens#28][rddskxxx.xxx] 924
May 1997 Life of Francis Marion #3, by William Dobein James[jjmarxxx.xxx] 923
May 1997 Sunday Under Three Heads by Charles Dickens[CD#27][suthsxxx.xxx] 922
May 1997 De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde [Oscar Wilde #13] [dprofxxx.xxx] 921
May 1997 Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza/Elwes Part 2 [#2] [2spnexxx.xxx] 920
May 1997 Ethics, by Benedict de Spinoza/Elwes Part 1 [#1] [1spnexxx.xxx] 919
May 1997 Sketches of Young Gentlemen, by Dickens [CD #26] [skygmxxx.xxx] 918
May 1997 Barnaby Rudge, 80's Riots, by Charles Dickens[#25][rudgexxx.xxx] 917
Today Is Day #105 of 2003
This Completes Week #15
266 Days/38 Weeks To Go
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #52 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks
Perhaps Our 10,000th eBook By The End of 2003!
62 Weekly Average in 2003
47 Weekly Average in 2002
24 Weekly Average in 2001
39 Only 39 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list
[Used to be well over 100]
***
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For me, we'd like to have one of these, will pay for it plus shipping:
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requires each individual eBM to be separately registered with Franklin
before it can be used - so no in-store demos, and if you lose the
operating system you've got to go online on your own PC to download it
again. It supports MMC cards but not Sdata.
***
Project Gutenberg--Canada will be starting up soon,
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Copyright in Canada is "Life +50" as in Australia,
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We will also be seeking volunteers from others of
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Statistical Review
In the 15 weeks of this year, we have produced 923 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1997 to produce our FIRST 923 eBooks!!!
That's 15 WEEKS as Compared to 26 YEARS!!!
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks of
production, each production-week starting/ending Wednesday noon,
starting with the first Wednesday in January. January 1st was
was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended the production
year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003.
With 7,666 eBooks online as of April 16, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.30 from each book,
for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000
[One Trillion Dollars] in books.
100,000,000 readers is only about 1.59 percent of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.97 when we had 5077 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine 7,000 books each costing $.67 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine 7,000 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 7666 eBooks in 31 3/4 Years We Averaged
242 Per Year [About how many we do per month these days!]
20 Per Month
.7 Per Day
At 923 eBooks Done In 2003 We Averaged
9 Per Day
61 Per Week
264 Per Month
***Headline News***
[My Comments In Brackets]
AOL SUES SPAMMERS
AOL has filed five federal lawsuits against alleged distributors of mass
junk-mail, seeking damages of more than $10 million plus an end to the
messages. The case comes in response to about 8 million individual spam
complaints registered by AOL subscribers, most of whom used a "Spam Report"
feature introduced on the Web site last fall. Most of the defendants are
referred to as "John Doe," meaning that AOL could not determine their true
identities, but the suits also name Michael Levesque of Issaquah, Wash.,
and George A. Moore Jr. of Linthicum, Md., both of whom had listed false
phone numbers in their domain name registrations. By filing the lawsuits,
AOL gains additional authority to subpoena Internet service providers and
others trying to track down the other spammers. Meanwhile, AOL has also
begun targeting spammers who use residential broadband services such as
Comcast and RoadRunner, which is owned by AOL Time Warner. (AP 15 Apr 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030415/D7QDV6A00.html
GOOGLE'S JUGGLING ACT
Google's aggressive move into revenue-generating ventures over the past two
years is changing the way it presents information and could tarnish its
reputation as one of the more untainted search engines, say critics. In
addition to devising new schemes for advertisers, Google has gotten its
foot in the door in the corporate market, peddling a combined hardware and
software approach to corporate searching. And while that's a fairly limited
market, Google could use its corporate search product as a launch pad into
the wider realms of information retrieval and knowledge management, says
Forrester analyst Laura Ramos, where there is an increasingly significant
demand by businesses for search tools that work across different
applications, such as Web content management, customer support, e-mail and
databases. "I think (corporate search is) potentially lucrative because of
Google's brand and reputation." But critics are grumbling that Google could
begin to lose its credibility if too much of its business becomes ad-driven
rather than search-related and say they fear that Google could use its
dominant position to manipulate Web searchers without their knowledge.
"Google has discovered there's a ton of money to be made, and they're going
for the gold. The only purpose for Google to crawl the rest of the
(noncommercial) Web is to legitimize themselves as a search engine," says
David Brandt, president of Public Information Research, which publishes
theGoogle-watch.org Web site. (E-Commerce Times 15 Apr 2003)
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21267.html
EXPEDIA COMMISSION LOWERED IN ITS NEW DEAL WITH HILTON HOTELS
The Hilton Hotel chain has struck what it is calling "the best deal in the
industry" by making a deal with online travel site Expedia that will reduce
Expedia commissions by about one-third. The online travel business is
thriving, and already accounts for 10% of all travel bookings, a figure
expected to increase to 20% in 2005. In contrast, the travel industry is
stagnant, and burdened by the fees for online bookings -- fees that may
account for about 35% of what customers pay for a room. Online travel
company executive Eric Christenson notes, "That is a hell of a lot of money
for an electronic reservation." As a result, the travel industry is
pressuring online travel sites to reduce their service charges.
(Reuters/USA Today 15 Apr 2003)
APPLE TO LAUNCH ITS OWN MUSIC SERVICE
Apple Computer is launching its own music service in the next few weeks,
offering users songs from all five major record labels. The new music
service will be integrated with Apple's iTunes music software, which is
used to organize and play MP3 files on Macs. Rather than following the
subscription-based model adopted by the record-label-backed pressplay and
MusicNet services and others, Apple plans to sell its songs individually
for about 99 cents a track. And while the service is rumored to be more
consumer-friendly than many of the other legitimate online music services,
it's available only to Mac users -- a group that comprises about 5% of the
global market. (Wall Street Journal 14 Apr 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105027555531211100.djm,00.html (sub req'd)
RISE OF LINUX IS CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE
The growing appeal of Linux as an alternative to rival operating systems
such as Microsoft's Windows and Sun Microsystems' Solaris is changing the
dynamics of the computer software business. Although currently relegated to
"back-office" operations that handle e-mail, Web pages, file-sharing and
printing, Linux is primed to begin making inroads into the higher echelons
of business computing, such as telecom billing and airline reservation
systems. A recent Garner report says that "businesses are coming to regard
Linux as a worthy alternative to Unix and Windows." That trend has proven a
boon for IBM, which embraced Linux in 1999 and now offers it across its
entire product range, from lowly PCs to mighty mainframes. Also benefiting
are Hewlett-Packard and Dell, both of which have been successful selling
Linux servers. But the blossoming of Linux could prove toxic to Sun, which
has seen some of its high-end Solaris server customers migrate to
inexpensive Linux-run machines. Sun has compensated by offering its own
cheap boxes running Linux alongside its more powerful Solaris-based ones,
but many in the industry predict the dual strategy is "doomed." (The
Economist 10 Apr 2003)
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1699434
TIVO REACHES OUT TO THE INTERNET
TiVo Series2 recorders can now be given a software update to allow the
device to record not only TV programs but also Internet-downloadable music,
video, and graphics files. A software update will cost $99, and will also
allow a viewer with multiple Series2 TiVos to record on one machine while
watching on another after transferring the recording over the network. (USA
Today 11 Apr 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techreviews/products/2003-04-11-tivo_x.htm
NEWS FILTERS AT CNN: EXEC FELT 'AWFUL' ABOUT SUPPRESSING THE TRUTH
In a confessional mood, top CNN news executive Eason Jordan has admitted in
a New York Times op/ed piece that over a dozen-year period CNN deliberately
withheld news that would have exposed to the world the horrors of the
Saddam Hussein regime. His examples of those horrors include the
electroshock torture of a CNN cameraman and the beatings and execution of a
31-year-old woman charged with talking to a CNN reporter. ("They beat her
daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the
eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body
apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the
doorstep of her family's home.") During the course of 13 trips he made to
Baghdad to ensure that CNN's bureau there could remain open, Jordan "came
to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that
Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed." But CNN chose not to
share any of this information with its U.S. or worldwide audiences. Now
Jordan says: "I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now
that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many
more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last,
these stories can be told freely." (New York Times 11 Apr 2003)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/opinion/11JORD.html
[40% of all email is spam!]
[Would email run nearly twice as fast without spam?]
SENATORS INTRODUCE ANTI-SPAM BILL
Senators Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have introduced
legislation that seeks to cut down on junk e-mail by requiring Internet
marketers to provide legitimate return addresses on their e-mail and to
honor consumers' requests to be taken off e-mail distribution lists. "This
bill will help to keep legitimate Internet traffic and e-commerce flowing
by going after those unscrupulous individuals who use e-mail in annoying
and misleading ways," said Wyden in a statement. The bill would not allow
individuals to sue spammers directly, but would require that state
attorneys general sue on their behalf. The Federal Trade Commission could
also fine violators, and ISPs could block spammers from their networks. The
average U.S. Internet user received more than 2,200 spam messages last
year, according to Jupiter Research, and the UK government said last month
that spam now accounts for 40% of global e-mail traffic. A similar bill
sponsored by Burns and Wyden cleared the Commerce Committee last year, but
was not taken up for a vote in the Senate. "Now it's time to move forward.
This legislation has been on hold for too long," says Burns.
(Reuters 10 Apr 2003) http://
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=581&ncid=581&e=4&u=/nm/20030410
[More Google Faux Pas News]
GOOGLE SEEKS TO DIFFERENTIATE PR, NEWS
Google is changing the way its Google News pages handle press releases,
after some releases appeared in its news listings without being tagged as
such. The search engine company started including press releases two months
ago. A company spokesman said that the listing of unmarked press releases
was "not intentional" and that Google was working to ensure that all press
releases were marked. "Google includes press releases in Google News
because we believe they are an additional resource that offers our users a
valuable perspective on the genesis of a story," he said. (AP 10 Apr 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030410/D7QARTG02.html
[More Apple Music News]
APPLE -- THE COMPUTER AND RECORD COMPANY
Apple has been holding secret talks with Vivendi Universal exploring the
possibility of Apple's acquisition, for about $6 billion, of Vivendi's
Universal Music Group, which is the largest record company in the world.
Although no Apple or Vivendi managers have commented on the talks, it is
known that the investment bank Morgan Stanley is now conducting due
diligence to set the stage for the purchase. Apple has been working to
develop a new service that would make downloading and purchasing music
from the Internet as easy as buying a book from Amazon.com.
(Los Angeles Times/San Jose Mercury News 11 Apr 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5611142.htm
PREVENTING TINY (OR LARGE) UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Experts have told the House Science Committee that a portion of the
proposed $2.1 billion government funding for nanotechnology research should
be earmarked for research on the societal and ethical implications of such
research. Ray Kurzweil, a leader in artificial intelligence research, said
that because the technology is so tiny that it can "get in our tissues, our
bloodstream, our brains," it poses "a new type of safety concern" since it
could be used by bioterrorists. (Gannett/USA Today 10 Apr 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-10-nanotech_x.htm
WIRELESS CARRIERS PROPOSE NEW 'NUMBER PORTABILITY' PLAN
For years, U.S. wireless operators have opposed efforts to force them to
allow customers to keep their cell phone number when they switch to another
carrier. But the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association is now
pushing a new plan -- one that would comply with Federal Communications
Commission rules on cell phone number portability, but would also require
land-line carriers to allow customers to switch their traditional phone
numbers to cell phones. The new proposal, if adopted, could accelerate the
trend of people dropping their land-line service in favor of going
completely wireless. Wireless operators have fought number portability over
the years because they fear a dramatic increase in "churn," as they
eliminate one inhibition to switching carriers. That could increase costs
and likely would spark another round of price wars. "It's basically the
nightmare before Christmas," says Roger Entner, an analyst with Yankee
Group, who predicts that escalating churn following the Nov. 24 deadline
set by the FCC could cost the industry $3 billion in the fourth quarter
this year and the first quarter next year in increased commissions, phone
subsidies and other sales-related expenditures. By including traditional
phone providers in the number portability plan, wireless carriers hope to
compensate for loss of cell phone customers with a new influx of former
land-line subscribers. "The opportunity to take the wire-line phone and
port it to wireless is an opportunity that the wireless industry wants to
have happen," says Michael Altschul, general counsel to the CTIA. FCC
chairman Michael Powell plans to rule on the CTIA proposal before the Nov.
24 deadline. (Wall Street Journal 10 Apr 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB104993000328997700.djm,00.html
INTERNET FRAUD COMPLAINTS TRIPLE
Complaints about fraudulent schemes perpetrated over the Internet tripled
in 2002 from the previous year, with the most common grievance being
auction fraud, followed by non-delivery of promised merchandise, credit
card fraud and fake investments. According to a report from the Internet
Fraud Complaint Center, which is run by the FBI and the National White
Collar Crime Center, the 48,252 complaints referred for prosecution in 2002
represent only a fraction of the crimes authorities believe are occurring.
The center also received almost 37,000 other complaints that did not
constitute fraud, but involved such things as spam, illegal child
pornography and computer intrusions. The report says 80% of known fraud
perpetrators and about 71% of complainants are male. Fraud complaints
originated in all parts of the country, with a third coming from
California, Florida, Texas and New York. One of the most persistent scams
described in the report is the infamous "Nigerian letter," which urges
victims to pay an upfront fee (characterized as a bribe to the government)
in order to receive non-existent funds from the "Government of Nigeria."
There were 16,000 complaints related to that scam in 2002, up from 2,600 in
2001. (AP 9 Apr 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030409/D7QA6UFO0.html
[Copyrights Ruled More Important Than Constitutional Free Speech]
[More Under Edupage]
JUDGE DISMISSES CHALLENGE TO DIGITAL COPYRIGHT ACT
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns has dismissed a lawsuit by the American
Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Harvard student who sought proprietary
information from software company N2H2 so that he could reverse-engineer
its software filtering product. The student and the ACLU had argued that
software filters violate constitutional free speech protections because
such filters unintentionally block far more than just pornography, and
thereby deny people access to information to which they have a right. But
Judge Stearns ruled that "there is no plausible protected constitutional
interest that Edelman can assert that outweighs N2H2's right to protect its
copyrighted material from an invasive and destructive trespass."
(AP/USA Today 9 Apr 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-09-filter-suit_x.htm
"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an
international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."
(George Bernard Shaw)
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From Edupage
GERMANY EXPANDS ACADEMIC USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
The German Parliament has passed a law allowing academics to distribute
copyrighted works digitally to students and other academics. The
copyright exemptions allowed by the new law cover "small parts" of
copyrighted works distributed to small groups of people, such as the
students in a class. The law also stipulates that access must be
controlled by passwords or a similar mechanism, and Parliament must
re-approve the law in 2006 for it to remain in place. Academics cheered
the new legislation, saying it explicitly gives them the same freedom
with electronic materials that they already have with printed ones.
Publishers and some authors of copyrighted material strongly opposed
the law, saying it would kill the academic publishing industry. Many
academics dismissed that argument, saying publishers must work with
academic interests to "develop ... new ways to organize and distribute
digital material."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 April 2003
http://chronicle.com/free/2003/04/2003041407n.htm
MICHIGAN TECH RESPONDS TO RIAA LAWSUITS
The president of Michigan Technological University (MTU) responded
angrily to four lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA) against students--including one at MTU--for illegal file
swapping. In a letter to the RIAA, Curtis Tompkins accused the
association of acting in bad faith in pursuing prosecution against
students. Despite his school's cooperation with the RIAA in stopping
illegal peer-to-peer networks, according to Tompkins, the RIAA has not
shown reciprocity in working with the university. Tompkins said the
RIAA had clearly known for some time about the MTU student named in the
suit but that the RIAA never contacted MTU. Had the RIAA done that, he
said, "we would have shut off the student and not allowed the problem
to grow to the size and scope that it is today."
Internet News, 9 April 2003
http://boston.internet.com/news/article.php/2179281
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SUES AOL OVER INVESTMENT LOSSES
The University of California has filed suit against AOL Time Warner,
alleging that the company misrepresented its financial situation,
thereby costing the university $450 million. During the past year, AOL
has restated its earnings, eliminating about $600 million from
previously reported revenues. Those revelations caused the company's
stock to plummet, resulting in the losses. Amalgamated Bank, the
university's co-plaintiff in the case, said that because of the
alleged misrepresentation and ensuing drop in stock price, its AOL
stock lost almost $56 million. The plaintiffs argued that AOL's new
earnings statements may be "too conservative" and that AOL may have
overstated earnings by close to $1 billion. The suit also charges that
AOL executives knew about the restatements and sold hundreds of
millions of dollars in stock before the announcements were made.
Wall Street Journal, 14 April 2003 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105032911672076100,00.html
[WHERE'S THE ART???!!! Apparently there isn't any, just policy/politics]
PRINCETON LAUNCHES ARTS ARCHIVE
Princeton University has unveiled what it calls "the world's first
fully interactive, Web-accessible digital archive of policy-relevant
data on culture and the arts." Visitors to the Cultural Policy and the
Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA), a project of the Princeton
University Library and the university's Center for Arts and Cultural
Policy Studies, can access both current and past research findings,
such as public opinion, city-specific data, and statistics dealing with
the arts. Resources available are currently broken down into four categories:
artists, audiences, organizations, and support for the arts.
Information Today, 14 April 2003
http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/wnd030414.shtml
["The list of Web sites their filters block" is copyrighted/copyrightable?!]
["You will be allowed to speak, they will not be allowed to listen."
At the execution of Sir Thomas More by King Henry VIII, about royal divorces.]
JUDGE DISMISSES ANTI-DMCA SUIT
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Harvard University
law school student to test the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Benjamin Edelman asked the court to prevent Internet-filtering company
N2H2 from suing him if he circumvented the company's encryption to see
the list of Web sites their filters block. The DMCA forbids such
circumvention, and opponents of the law have argued that it impedes
research into encryption and other technologies. Federal Judge Richard
G. Stearns disagreed that Edelman's research interests outweigh
N2H2's right to protect its copyrighted property. The judge said, "The
court has no inkling of the exact dimension of the research that
Edelman proposes to undertake and doubts that Edelman does either."
Chronicle of Higher Education, 10 April 2003
http://chronicle.com/free/2003/04/2003041001t.htm
FORMER OPPONENTS AGREE TO E-PUBLISHING DEAL
Two years ago Random House and RosettaBooks were involved in a legal
battle over the right to publish books electronically. RosettaBooks had
made deals with Random House authors, arguing that rights to digital
media were not covered by the original contracts with Random House.
Random House disagreed and sued RosettaBooks. Although the key point of
that suit--what happens when e-rights are not specified--was left
unresolved by a settlement the two companies reached, they have entered
into an agreement for RosettaBooks to publish 51 e-books of Random
House authors, including Margaret Atwood and John Updike. The list does
not include books from Random House's top-selling authors, such as
John Grisham or Anne Rice, but, according to Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of
RosettaBooks, "We're bringing some terrific books and terrific authors
into the electronic format." A spokesman for Random House called the
agreement with RosettaBooks "mutually advantageous," saying Random
House is focusing on audio and print books while RosettaBooks is
focusing on e-books.
Associated Press, 9 April 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/847467p-5948492c.html
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