GWeekly_July_09.txt
****The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, June 09, 2003***
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Project Gutenberg Is 32 Years Old As Of July 4th!!!
*Week 1 Of The 33rd Year Of Project Gutenberg eBooks*
We Are Now More Than 86% Of The Way To 10,000 eBooks!!!
We Produced About As Many eBooks In 28 Weeks As The First 28 Years!
***
On Project Gutenberg's 32nd Anniversary:
Last week I wrote:
"Here were are, at what should be our last anniversary before #10,000, and
now reaching for 8,500 eBooks on July 9th. . .that would be 266 per year!"
And we reached 8,600 eBooks on July 6th!!!
Today we are at #8,628!
That is over 99% of Moore's Law From July 3rd of last year!
HUGE Thanks To All Our Supporters!!!!!!!
Michael
***
Only 5 Months/22 Weeks Until eBook #10,000 I Hope!!!
8628 Books Done. . .1372 To Go. . .in 153 More Days!
[The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly
go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments,
2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.]
Find out how Distributed Proofreaders coped with the July 4th
publicity on slashdot. All this and more in part 2!
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
[I know some of you are expecting my "Future of Project Gutenberg Article"
here. . .I am still working on it, and have included a draft below.]
Over Our 32 1/52 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 269 Ebooks/Year
And This Year Averaged About That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
1885 New eBooks So Far In The 6.25 Months Of 2003
We Are Averaging About 300 Per Month!!!
***
Edgar Allen Poe climbed the mountain at the southern tip of Moskenes
Island, Norway, during the violent riptide, before writing "Descent
Into The Maelstrom." Bob Webster, of Junkmail / xpda.com and longtime
Gutenberg reader, recently flew his PC12 airplane from the US to Europe
by way of Moskenes Island. Bob remarks that he knew that Poe had
ventured up that way only because he had downloaded and read "Descent,"
and recommends various Project Gutenberg publications to readers of all
ages. Read the entire article, look at pictures of the mountain, and
download "Descent" in .rtf format in the July issue of Bob's "Junkmail"
http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk138/junk138.htm
***
In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- Hot Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
5 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.
212 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- "The Future Of Project Gutenberg"
- Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
*** Hot Requests For Assistance
Latin Is A Dying Language???
Latin Library (www.thelatinlibrary.com) died,
and was resurrected recently, bring attention
to the fact that we need to save these files,
find matching paper editions, and be sure the
files don't disappear.
If you would like to help with Latin eBooks,
please let me know.
***
Project Gutenberg DVD Needs Burners
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so we can plan how many DVD's we can make with all 10,000
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can likely send you a box of CDs containing most of these
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*** PROJECT GUTENBERG IS SEEKING LEGAL BEAGLES
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email Michael Hart <hart@pobox.com>.
[We received 3 replies from the US, 1 from Australia, but
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*** NEW ADDRESS FOR "PUNCH" MAGAZINE TEAM
If you have, and are willing to scan bound volumes of Punch
pre-1923 please contanct as below. No single issues, please,
unless you have a complete year of them.
Please contact: jonathan_ingram@yahoo.com
*** Progress Report
In the first 6.25 months of this year, we produced 1885 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our first 1,885 eBooks!
That's 28 WEEKS as Compared to 28 Years!
217 New eBooks This Week
52 New eBooks Last Week
217 New eBooks This Month [July]
302 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
1885 New eBooks in 2003 <<<
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
8,628 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
5,537 eBooks This Week Last Year
3,072 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months
4,252 New eBooks in the last 18 months <<<
245 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
***Week 1 Of The 33rd Year Of Project Gutenberg eBooks***
*Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli of Rome, Italy*
Check out our Websites at promo.net/pg & gutenberg.net, and see below
to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers
even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalogue. The
eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists.
***
FLASHBACK!!!
1868 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 28 years for the first 1868!
That's the 27 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to 28 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1868
Sep 1999 The Old Peabody Pew by Kate Douglas Wiggin[KDW#13][oldpwxxx.xxx] 1902
Sep 1999 Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long [sctwdxxx.xxx] 1901
Sep 1999 Typee, by Herman Melville [Herman Melville #2][typeexxx.xxx] 1900
Sep 1999 The Village Rector, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac#79][vrctrxxx.xxx] 1899
.(Note: the filename vrctrxxx.xxx is also used for a totally different
.(eBook, #1329 in etext98)
Sep 1999 Albert Savarus, by Honore de Balzac[de Balzac #78][svrusxxx.xxx] 1898
Sep 1999 The Seventh Man, by Max Brand [Max Brand #1][7thmnxxx.xxx] 1897
Sep 1999 Under the Red Robe, by Stanley Weyman [Weyman #1][rdrobxxx.xxx] 1896
Sep 1999 Armadale, by Wilkie Collins [Wilkie Collins #20][armdlxxx.xxx] 1895
Sep 1999 Visit to Iceland, by Madame Ida Pfeiffer [IP #1] [vstilxxx.xxx] 1894
Sep 1999 Song & Legend From the Middle Ages, by McClintocks[slfmaxxx.xxx] 1893
Sep 1999 Extracts From Adam's Diary, by Mark Twain [MT#15][xadamxxx.xxx] 1892
Sep 1999 A Plea for Old Cap Collier by Irvin S. Cobb[Cobb4][pfoccxxx.xxx] 1891
Sep 1999 Speaking of Operations, by Irvin S. Cobb [Cobb #3][spoprxxx.xxx] 1890
Sep 1999 Bird Neighbors, by Neltje Blanchan [bdnbrxxx.xxx] 1889
Sep 1999 The Bittermeads Mystery, by E. R. Punshon [btrmmxxx.xxx] 1888
Sep 1999 The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre [lfspdxxx.xxx] 1887
Sep 1999 Bunyan Characters (2nd Series), by Alex. Whyte #2 [2bnchxxx.xxx] 1886
Sep 1999 Bunyan Characters (1st Series), by Alex. Whyte #1 [1bnchxxx.xxx] 1885
Sep 1999 The Exiles, by Honore de Balzac [H de Balzac #77][xilesxxx.xxx] 1884
Sep 1999 The Wife, et al, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #14][twifexxx.xxx] 1883
Also contains:
Difficult People, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #13]
The Grasshopper, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #12]
A Dreary Story, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #11]
The Privy Councillor, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #10]
The Man in Case, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #9]
Gooseberries, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #8]
About Love, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #7]
The Lottery Ticket, by Anton Chekhov [Chekhov #6]
Sep 1999 The Young Forester, by Zane Grey [Zane Grey #9][yn4stxxx.xxx] 1882
Sep 1999 The Call of the Canyon, by Zane Grey[Zane Grey #8][tcotcxxx.xxx] 1881
Sep 1999 The Pathfinder, by James Fenimore Cooper[Cooper#2][pthfnxxx.xxx] 1880
Sep 1999 Royalty Restored, by J. Fitzgerald Molloy [rruc2xxx.xxx] 1879
[Title: Royalty Restored, or London under Charles II]
Sep 1999 A Millionaire of Yesterday, E. Phillips Oppenheim [mlystxxx.xxx] 1878
Sep 1999 A Mountain Woman, by Elia W. Peattie [Peattie #3][mtwmnxxx.xxx] 1877
Sep 1999 The Shape of Fear, by Elia W. Peattie [Peattie #2][tshfrxxx.xxx] 1876
Sep 1999 Painted Windows by Elia W. Peattie [Peattie #1][pwndsxxx.xxx] 1875
Aug 1999 The Railway Children, by E. Nesbit [E. Nesbit #7][rlwycxxx.xxx] 1874
Aug 1999 Gambara, by Honore de Balzac[Honore de Balzac #76][gmbraxxx.xxx] 1873
Aug 1999 The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne [Milne #1][rdhsmxxx.xxx] 1872
Aug 1999 The Deputy of Arcis, by Honore de Balzac[Balzac75][arcisxxx.xxx] 1871
Aug 1999 Reginald in Russia, etc., by Saki (H.H.Munro) [#4][rgrusxxx.xxx] 1870
Aug 1999 The Man in Lower Ten, by Mary Roberts Rinehart[#9][tmiltxxx.xxx] 1869
Aug 1999 Penelope's Postscripts, by Kate Douglas Wiggin #12[pnlpsxxx.xxx] 1868
Aug 1999 The Diary of a Goose Girl, by Wiggin [Wiggin #11][gsgrlxxx.xxx] 1867
[Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin]
Aug 1999 North America, Vol. 2, by Anthony Trollope [AT #4][2noamxxx.xxx] 1866
Aug 1999 North America, Vol. 1, by Anthony Trollope [AT #3][1noamxxx.xxx] 1865
Aug 1999 Hero Tales From American History, Lodge/Roosevelt [htfahxxx.xxx] 1864
Aug 1999 From Cornhill to Grand Cairo by Thackeray [WMT #6][crhcrxxx.xxx] 1863
Aug 1999 Tartarin of Tarascon, by Alphonse Daudet [trtrnxxx.xxx] 1862
Aug 1999 An Old Town By The Sea by Thomas Bailey Aldrich #6[ldtwnxxx.xxx] 1861
Aug 1999 Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley[Chas Kingsley #8][wsthoxxx.xxx] 1860
Aug 1999 The Works of Max Beerbohm, by Max Beerbohm[Max #6][twombxxx.xxx] 1859
Aug 1999 Plain Tales from the Hills, by Rudyard Kipling[#6][ptfthxxx.xxx] 1858
Aug 1999 Initials Only, by Anna Katharine Green [Green #3][ionlyxxx.xxx] 1857
Aug 1999 Cousin Pons, by Honore de Balzac [de Balzac #74][cspnsxxx.xxx] 1856
Aug 1999 Ban and Arriere Ban, by Andrew Lang[Andr. Lang#15][bnabnxxx.xxx] 1855
Aug 1999 Catherine de Medici, by Honore de Balzac/Balzac#73[ctdmdxxx.xxx] 1854
Aug 1999 The Ninth Vibration, et. al., by L. Adams Beck #8 [9thvbxxx.xxx] 1853
Contains:
The Interpreter [LAB #7]
The Incomparable Lady [LAB #6]
The Hatred of the Queen [LAB #5]
The Fire of Beauty [LAB #4]
The Building of the Taj Majal [LAB #3]
How Great is the Glory of Kwannon! [LAB #2]
The Round-Faced Beauty [LAB #1]
Aug 1999 Lucile, by Owen Meredith [lucilxxx.xxx] 1852
Aug 1999 The Woman in the Alcove by Anna Katharine Green #2[wintaxxx.xxx] 1851
Aug 1999 Old Christmas, by Washington Irving [Irving #5][oxmasxxx.xxx] 1850
***
Today Is Day #189 of 2003
This Completes Week #27
181 Days/26 Weeks To Go [We get 53 Wednesdays this year]
[For those who pay attention, we COULD claim that week now,
but will probably wait until the end of the year]
1372 Books To Go To #10,000
153 Days To December 10, 2003
[Our Goal For eBook #10,000]
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #63 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks
70 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]
*** Continuing Requests For Assistance:
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please let us know if you would like to volunteer!
Copyright in Canada is "Life +50" as in Australia,
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Use your Web browser or FTP program to visit our master download
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*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 28 weeks of this year, we have produced 1885 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 1999 to produce our FIRST 1885 eBooks!!!
That's 28 WEEKS as Compared to 28 YEARS!!!
With 8,628 eBooks online as of July 09, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.16 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 $1.81 when we had 5537 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine 8,600+ books each costing $.65 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine 8,600+ books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 8628 eBooks in ~32 Years and 00.25 Months We Averaged
299 Per Year [About how many we do per month these days!]
25 Per Month
.8 Per Day
At 1885 eBooks Done In 2003 We Averaged
10 Per Day
70 Per Week
302 Per Month
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 at noon.
This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week.
***
Draft of Article:
"The Future Of Project Gutenberg After Our 10,000th eBook"
People have been asking me about the future of Project Gutenberg
this week of our 32nd anniversary: how long we could keep up in
our efforts to continue at Moore's Law growth rates; grand total
of books we could expect to do if nothing after the Mickey Mouse
birthday in 1926 has a copyright expiration date, and our effort
to do books in more and more languages and cultures, etc., etc.
As for Moore's Law, this is a very difficult growth rate to keep
up with these days, requiring that we continue to keep up with a
growth rate approximately doubling every 18 months. I make that
"approximately" because since 1990, we are somewhat ahead of the
Moore's Law growth curve, but just barely keeping up since 1993,
when we ended with 100 eBooks in December. The "official" date,
given that we were a month ahead of schedule, was January, but I
recall that eBook #100, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, would
have been online overnight from December 10th to 11th, depending
on what time zone you were in. [Some people worked on it from a
location in Hawaii, so we got a few extra hours.]
Given that we were on a monthly production rate back then, exact
dates weren't relevant, we only reported production on the first
Wednesday of each month, so comparisons from today to then would
not be terribly exact, other than on a monthly basis.
However, _I_ still try to keep up with that December 10th date--
it is an anniversary of my father's death--and he was an English
professor who specialized in Shakespeare.
My recollection is that Moore's Law would require something like
10,700 and something by December 10, 2003, so I announced 10,000
as our goal for that date, and figured we might get that 700 and
some by the end of the year, but it's going to be close, on both
counts, if you'll pardon the pun.
The real questions for the future are about getting to a million
by December 10, 2013, which is what it would take to keep up the
growth rate for the next decade at the same rate as for the last
decade of 1993 to 2003. . .100 times as many books each decade.
Personally, I am hoping we could get enough funding and exposure
after we get to 10,000 that we could actually DO 1,000,000 books
in the next decade, but obviously another decade would mean that
we would have to do 100,000,000 books, and that is probably more
books than will exist 20 years from now.
The solution is to tackle translating the one million books that
are already done into one hundred languages. . .something I fear
will put the Babelfish and Golden Bow projects to severe testing
to see if they can provide anything as useful as scanners became
10 years ago. I should add here, that the first scanner I used,
huge and expensive as it was, was NOT worth the time it took and
I ended up coming back down here to my basement and typing books
in from scratch. Translation is MUCH harder!!! I would HOPE it
will be made a LOT easier by then!!!
So, in a nutshell, there it is. . .my plans for two more decades
of Project Gutenberg growing at Moore's Law growth rates. Don't
expect a simple crossover between doing new books and languages,
I expect we will continue to encourage translations, to and from
all 100 languages we eventually hope to work in, and that public
domain legal standing may not quite suffer the complete disaster
planned for it by the copyright authorities of today, and, thus,
we might get to do some, or even most, of the publications after
1923, including music, various kinds of artwork and perhaps even
things we have not yet even considered for Project Gutenberg.
Hollywood, RIAA, and Network Television notwithstanding, and not
to leave out the paper tigers.
***
Here it is in numbers:
December 10, 1990 10 Ten
December 10, 1993 100 One Hundred
December 10, 2003* 10,000 Ten Thousand
December 10, 2013* 1,000,000 One Million
December 10, 2023* 100,000,000 One Hundred Million
*estimated
The 100,000,000 for December 10, 2023 could be any mixtures made
up of the following examples, or even include more options:
1,000,000 eBooks, each in 100 languages
2,000,000 eBooks, each in 50 languages
4,000,000 eBooks, each in 25 languages
5,000,000 eBooks, each in 20 languages
I would like to see the core of our collection translated into 5
languages in the next decade to gain some experience, perhaps:
[Alphabetically]
Chinese
French
German
Spanish
etc. . .
Doesn't have to be the same 5 languages for each book we try.
***
When considering the future of Project Gutenberg, one should not
only consider the number of books in our collection, but also an
approximation of how many people we expect to get them.
The original goal of Project Gutenberg was a multiple one:
1. To Encourage The Creation And Distribution Of eBooks.
2. To Create A Collection of 10,000 Project Gutenberg eBooks.
3. To Get Those 10,000 eBooks To 100,000,000 Readers On The Average,
TO GIVE AWAY A TOTAL OF ONE TRILLION = 1,000,000,000,000 eBooks.
[100,000,000 readers is about 1.5% of the world population today]
When we accomplish this goal in about 5 months our goal will shift to
creating a collection totalling 1,000,000 and getting them to readers
totalling 1,000,000,000 = ONE BILLION READERS to give away a total of
1,000,000,000,000,000 = ONE QUADRILLION eBOOKS TO BE GIVEN AWAY. . .!
***
We also have to consider movies, television, music, photography,
etc., and we must therefore fine experts in the copyrights these
have as they are NOT the same as for written texts.
In addition, we will be moving into the area of doing more books
from before 1923, and thus doing research on copyright renewals.
***
In addition, I have been asked to address the question of formats:
Project Gutenberg always has promoted plain text eBooks to make books
available in the widest possible combinations of hardware & software,
and we will continue to do so. We ARE considering various formats in
addition to plain text, and also considering doing something XMLish--
that may allow the creation of a wide variety of formats "on the fly"
if we can manage it. Yes, we do have ONE eBooks that we posted ONLY!
in 8 bit format, as the volunteer did not want the French without the
proper accents. Eventually that book will probably also appear in an
ordinary plain text format, but I promised it would have to come from
an outside source, as we promised we would abide by his wishes. This
is just one mark of dedication to the Project Gutenberg volunteers, I
try not to be very bossy, as I think our volunteer should enjoy eBook
creation and distribution from start to finish.
!!!!!!!My HUGE Thanks To ALL Our Volunteers!!!!!!!
Michael
***Headline News***
[Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From Newsscan
[The Times They Are A'Changin' !!!]
LAPTOPS OUTSELL DESKTOPS FOR FIRST TIME
Sales of laptop computers accounted for more than 54% of the total retail
computer sales in May, with laptop outpacing desktop sales for the first
time ever, according to NPD Group. In comparison, laptops represented less
than 25% of total sales as recently as January 2000. May also marked the
first time that sales of LCD screens surpassed traditional CRT monitors.
Analysts contribute the shift to consumers' desire for laptops'
"portability, appealing form factors and attractive design" as well as more
competitive pricing, says NPD analyst Stephen Baker. In addition, "LCDs'
slim profile and sleek looks are more appealing." (AP 2 Jul 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030702/D7S1HP5G1.html
MICROSOFT'S E-BOOK GIVEAWAY
In an effort to boost adoption of its Microsoft Reader software, the
software leader is offering free e-book downloads over a 20-week period.
Microsoft Reader has received 6 million downloads since its debut in August
2000, but it faces an uphill battle against e-book market leader Adobe.
Over the five-month promotion period, Microsoft Reader users will be able
to download three e-book bestsellers a week from the company's Web site via
a Pocket PC, a Tablet PC, a laptop or a desktop. (CNet News.com 2 Jul 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1046_3-1023134.html?tag=fd_top
LINUX: THE MAGICIAN AND THE MAGIC
Talking with the San Jose Mercury News, Linux creator Linus Torvalds gave
this explanation of the evolution of the Linux operating system since it
origination (when he spent six months personally writing the original
code): "It all boils down to hundreds of different groups. A group can be a
huge company that has an agenda. Or it can mean one person at a university
working on a research project. They have their own thing they want to fix.
All of these people make their modifications, and not all of them are
accepted. I see it as a kind of ecosystem. You have survival of the
fittest. Some changes work better. Sometimes it is for purely technical
reasons. It's just the right thing to do. Sometimes it is for personality
reasons. Some people who push their changes are more likely to get things
done because they are nicer about it. It's not really centralized. I am at
the center, but I don't direct any teams. All these people are trying to
pull me in different directions. Some groups pull together in the same
direction. It's a very dynamic situation." (San Jose Mercury News 4 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6237239.htm
OUT-OF-STATE TELECOMMUTER IS OUT OF LUCK
A telecommuter living in Florida and doing work for a company in New York
has been told by the highest court in New York that she's ineligible for
New York State unemployment benefits. The court ruled unanimously that the
eligibility for benefits depends not on where the employer is but on where
the worker is. Since about 28 million Americans telecommute, this decision
is likely to have implications for workers throughout the country. (AP/San
Jose Mercury News 3 Jul 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6226207.htm
[Interesting That This Never Seems To Happen To Embezzlers, Enron, etc.]
NETWORK EXTORTION
Oleg Zezev, a Kazakh man who hacked into the computer of the Bloomberg
media company in attempt to extort $200,000 from billionaire media mogul
(and now New York City major) Michael Bloomberg has been sentenced by a
Manhattan court to four years in prison and fined $950,000, or almost five
times the amount he hoped to extort. Judge Kimba Wood told Zezev: "Your
crime was a very serious one because of its threat to international
commerce and the integrity of data that the financial community relies upon
to do its business." (Australian IT News 3 Jul 2003)
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6692859%5E15331%5E%5Enbv%5E1
5306-15318,00.html
COURT SAYS THUMBNAIL IMAGE LINKING IS FAIR USE
A federal appeals court ruled that a search engine's display of miniature
images of copyrighted works is allowed under fair use, upholding a similar
ruling in February 2002. The plaintiff in the case, photographer Leslie
Kelly, had sued image search engine firm Arriba Soft over thumbnail images
of her works that were accessible via Arriba's Ditto.com search engine.
Yesterday's decision, however, failed to confirm the legality of displaying
full-size images in search results -- a practice known as in-line linking
or framing -- and that case is now ordered to go to trial. "As to the first
action (on thumbnails), the district court correctly found that Arriba's
use was fair. However, as to the second action, we conclude that the
district court should not have reached the issue because neither party
moved for summary judgment as to the full-size images," according to the
opinion. The framing technique is used by a number of visual search
engines, including Google, Lycos and AltaVista. Nevertheless, the ruling
was viewed as a victory by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which had
filed a brief in favor of Arriba. "Web site owners can rest a bit easier
about linking to copyrighted materials online," said an EFF staff attorney.
"By revising its ruling, the court removed a copyright iceberg from the
main shipping lanes of the World Wide Web." (CNet News.com 7 Jul 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-1023629.html?tag=lh
COMING TO A COMPUTER SCREEN NEAR YOU -- TV COMMERCIALS
Advertisers are putting their TV spots online, spurred by a combination of
better technology, the spread of broadband and the failure of other online
advertising formats. And while ad agencies are enthusiastic about the
trend, analysts note that advertisers risk sparking a backlash among Web
surfers already irritated by intrusive pop-up ads. "In the television world
we've seen consumers become more and more frustrated with commercials. If
you're going to start providing that kind of advertising technology on the
Web, it's going to result in the same response from consumers," says a
Yankee Group analyst. Currently, "rich media" ads make up a small portion
of the $6-billion online advertising market, but the category grew last
year to 5% from 2% in 2001 and further growth is expected this year. "It's
minute compared to television. But, given the trends we're seeing, it won't
be minute two or three years from now." (Wall Street Journal 8 Jul 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10575907795884500,00.html
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From Edupage
EFF BACKS FILE SWAPPERS, ATTACKS RIAA
Responding to the recent announcement from the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) about plans for lawsuits against
individuals, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched a
campaign to mobilize the estimated 60 million Americans who use
file-sharing services. The goal of the "Let the Music Play" campaign is
to make changes in current copyright law to legalize file sharing while
guaranteeing that artists will be compensated for their work. According
to Shari Steele of the EFF, "copyright law is out of step with the
views of the American public and the reality of music distribution
online." The EFF has suggested instituting licensing fees, paid by
manufacturers of MP3s and CD-ROMs. The fees would be doled out to
artists based on usage. The RIAA dismissed the idea as one that would
favor retransmission services and stifle innovation.
Internet News, 1 July 2003
http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/2230301
RIAA WARNING BOOSTS SWAPPING
Representatives of Grokster and Morpheus said file-trading activity on
their services has increased by about 10 percent in recent days, not
long after the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
announced it would begin locating and prosecuting individual file
sharers. Some speculated the increase is a response to what many file
traders consider unreasonable action by the recording industry, while
others thought the rise suggests that many users see the RIAA's threat
as the "last call" to get music for free. Michael Weiss of Streamcast,
the company that developed Morpheus, said, "Any time you get media
attention, you get people interested to try it out." A spokesperson from
the RIAA declined to discuss the recent increase in file-trading activity.
Washington Post, 6 July 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7359-2003Jul3.html
KAZAA'S ANTITRUST SUIT THROWN OUT
A federal judge has thrown out a suit brought by Sharman Networks,
which distributes the Kazaa file-trading software, against recording
and film companies for what it said were antitrust violations. Sharman
argued that the entertainment industry was using its position to
prevent authorized copies from being traded on Kazaa. Judge Stephen V.
Wilson threw out the suit, however, saying that even if record and film
companies were guilty of using collective power unfairly, Sharman would
not be hurt because it is not in competition with them. Wilson had
previously ruled that developers of file-sharing technologies are not
responsible for illegal uses of those networks.
Wall Street Journal, 6 July 2003 (sub. req'd)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105752430215663300,00.html
MICROSOFT CHANGES LICENSING TERMS
To comply with parts of the government's antitrust settlement against
Microsoft, the company has changed the terms under which other
companies can license technology that allows Windows applications to
communicate with servers. Formerly, companies that wanted to license
the technology were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement even to
read the licensing terms, and licensees were prohibited from suing
Microsoft. Another aspect of the old terms discouraged prospective
licensees involved with Linux. These restrictions have been dropped in
what a Microsoft spokesman described as a "unique and unprecedented"
licensing program. Despite the new licensing terms, a recent court
filing indicates that some states remain concerned about some of
Microsoft's actions. Those issues will be discussed at a judicial
hearing later this month.
New York Times, 4 July 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/technology/04SOFT.html
PLANNED SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM RAISES EYEBROWS
A new surveillance system being developed by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency has some scientists and civil libertarians
concerned about potential civilian uses of the system. The Combat Zones
That See project is intended to use software to analyze images from
many thousands of cameras in an urban setting to identify cars, license
plates, and even passengers. The goal is to protect U.S. forces in
urban settings by spotting license plates on watch lists or discerning
suspicious behavior. Despite assurances from the Pentagon that the
technology is intended only for military uses, some observers have
expressed concern that it could be used by civilian law enforcement
agencies in a manner that intrudes on personal privacy. John Pike of
GlobalSecurity.org said, "Government would have a reasonably good idea
of where everyone is most of the time."
Washington Post, 2 July 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61389-2003Jul2.html
[Of Course, It's Not What We Usually Call Spam. . . .]
COURT RULES AGAINST INTEL IN E-MAIL TRESPASS CASE
The California Supreme Court ruled that a former Intel employee did not
violate trespassing laws when he sent e-mail messages to current Intel
employees. From 1996 to 1998, Kenneth Hamidi, a former Intel engineer
who was fired after a workers' compensation dispute, sent six e-mail
messages to Intel employees, directing them to a Web site he created
that criticized Intel. In 1998, Intel received an injunction that
barred Hamidi from sending messages to Intel employees. The California
court overturned the lower court's injunction and rejected Intel's
argument that the messages represented illegal trespassing to its
computer systems. The trespass argument has been used by Internet
service providers and companies to stop spam. Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a
New York-based technology lawyer, said, "Everyone is trying to figure
out ways to solve the spam problem, and this ruling doesn't help."
Although the case attracted attention regarding free-speech and
employee rights, the California court ruled only on the trespass issue.
New York Times, 1 July 2003 (registration req'd)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/01/technology/01SPAM.html
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